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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 

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Boston  Library  Consortium  IVIember  Libraries 


http://www.archive.org/details/comstockminingmiOOIord 


^DVERTISEMIEI^T. 


The  publications  of  tlie  United  States  Geological  Survey  are  issued  in  accordance  with  the  statute,  ap- 
proved March  3,  1879,  which  declares  that — 

The  publications  of  the  Geological  Survey  shall  consist  of  the  auniial  report  of  operations,  geological  and 
economic  maps  illustrating  the  resources  and  classifications  of  the  lands,  and  reports  upon  general  and  economic 
geology  and  paleontology.  The  annual  report  of  operations  of  the  Geological  Survey  shall  accompany  the  annual 
report  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Interior.  All  special  memoirs  and  reports  of  said  Survey  shall  be  issued  in  uniform 
quarto  series  if  deemed  necessary  by  the  Director,  but  otherwise  in  ordinary  octavo.s.  Three  thousand  copies 
of  each  shall  be  published  for  scientific  exchanges  and  for  sale  at  the  price  of  publication  ;  and  all  literary  and 
cartographic  materials  received  in  exchange  shall  be  the  property  of  the  United  States  and  form  a  part  of  the 
library  of  the  organization  :  And  the  money  resulting  from  the  sale  of  such  publications  shall  be  covered  into  the 
Treasury  of  the  United  States. 

ANNUAL  REPORTS. 

From  the  above  it  will  be  seen  that  only  the  Annual  Reports,  which  form  parts  of  the  reports  of  the  Sec- 
retary of  the  Interior  and  are  printed  as  executive  documents,  are  available  for  gratuitous  distribution.  A  num- 
ber of  these  are  furnished  the  Survey  for  its  exchange  list,  but  the  bulk  of  them  are  supplied  directly,  through 
the  document  rooms  of  Congress,  to  members  of  the  Senate  and  House.  Except,  therefore,  in  those  cases  in 
whicli  an  extra  number  is  supplied  to  this  Office  by  special  resolution,  application  must  be  made  to  members  of 
Congress  for  the  Annual  Reports,  as  for  all  other  execiuive  documents. 

Of  these  Annuals,  there  have  been  already  published  : 

I.  First  Annual  Report  to  the  Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  by  Clarence  King,  8°,  Washington,  1880,  79  pp.,  1 
map. — A  preliminary  report  describing  plan  of  organization  and  publications. 

II.  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  United  Slates  Geological  Survey  for  1880-'81,  by  J.  W.  Powell,  8°, 
Washington,  188i,  Iv,  588  pp.,  61  plates,  1  map. 

CONTENTS. 

Report  of  the  Director,  pp.  i-lv,  plates  1-7. 
■  Administrative  Reports  by  Heads  of  Divisions,  pp.  1-46,  plates  8  and  9. 
The  Physical  Geology  of  the  Grand  Canon  District,  by  Capt.  C.  E.  Button,  pp.  47-166,  plates  lD-36. 
Contribution  to  the  History  of  Lake  Bonneville,  by  G.  K.  Gilbert,  pp.  167-200,  plates  37-43. 
Abstract  of  Report  on  the  Geology  and  Mining  Industry  of  Leadville,  Colorado,  by  S.  F.  Emmons,  pp.  201-290, 

plates  44  and  45. 
A  Summary  of  the  Geology  of  the  Comstock  Lode  and  the  Washoe  District,  by  George  F.  Becker,  pp.  291-330, 

plates  46  and  47. 
Production  of  Precious  Metals  in  the  United  States,  by  Clarence  King,  pp.  331-401,  plates  48-53. 
A  New  Method  of  Measuring  Heights  by  means  of  the  Barometer,  by  G.  K.  Gilbert,  pp.  403-565,  plates  54-61. 
Index,  pp.  567-588. 

The  Third  Annual  Report  is  now  in  press. 

MONOGRAPHS. 

The  Monographs  of  the  Survey  are  printed  for  the  Survey  alone,  and  can  be  distributed  by  it  only  through 
a  fair  exchange  for  books  needed  in  its  library,  or  through  the  sale  of  those  copies  over  and  above  the  number 
needed  for  such  exchange.     They  are  not  for  gratuitous  distribution. 

So  far  as  already  determined  upon,  the  list  of  these  monographs  is  as  follows : 

I.  The  Precious  Metals,  by  Clarence  King.     In  preparation, 

II.  Tertiary  History  of  the  Grand  Canon  District,  with  atlas,  by  Capt.  C.  E.  Button.     Published. 

III.  Geology  of  the  Comstock  Lode  and  Washoe  District,  with  atlas,  by  George  F.  Becker.     Published. 

(I) 


ii  ADVERTISEMENT. 

IV.  Comstock  Mining  and  Miners,  by  Eliot  LoVd.     Published. 

V.  Copper-bearing  Rooks  of  Lake  Superior  and  their  continuation  through  Minnesota,  by  Prof.  K.  D. 
Irving.     In  press. 

VI.  Older  Mesozoic  Flora  of  Virginia,  by  Prof.  William  M.  Fontaine.     In  press. 
Geology  and  Mining  Industry  of  Leadville,  with  atlas,  by  S.  F.  Emmons.     In  preparation. 
Geology  of  the  Eureka  Mining  District,  Nevada,  with  atlas,  by  Arnold  Hague.     In  preparation. 
Coal  of  the  United  Slates,  by  Prof.  R.  Pumpelly.     In  preparation. 

Iron  of  the  United  States,  by  Prof.  R.  Pumpelly.     In  preparation. 

Lesser  Metala  and  General  Mining  Resources,  by  Prof.  R.  Pumpelly.     In  preparation. 

Lake  Bonneville,  by  G.  K.  Gilbert.     lu  preparation. 

Dinocerata.     A  monograph  on  an  extinct  order  of  Ungulates,  by  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh.     In  press. 

Sauropoda,  by  Prof.  O.  C.  Marsh.     In  preparation. 

Stegosauria,  by  Prof  O.  C.  Marsh.     In  preparation. 

Of  these  monographs,  numbers  II,  III,  aud  IV  are  now  published,  viz: 

II.  Tertiary  History  of  the  Grand  Canon  District,  with  atlas,  by  C.  E.  Dutton,  Capt.  U.  S.  A.  1882,  4°, 
264  pp.,  42  plates,  and  atlas  of  26  double  sheets  folio.     Price  $10.12. 

III.  Geology  of  the  Comstock  Lode  aud  Washoe  District,  with  atlas,  by  George  P.  Becker.  1882,  4°,  422 
pp.,  7  plaies,  aud  atlas  of  21  sheets  folio.     Price  $11.00. 

IV.  Comstock  Mining  and  Miners,  by  Eliot  Lord.     1883,  4°,  451  pp.,  3  plates.    Price  |1.50. 
Numbers  V  and  VI  are  in  press  and  will  appear  in  quick  succession.     The  others,  to  which  numbers  are 

not  assigned,  are  in  preparation. 

BULLETINS. 

The  Bulletins  of  the  Survey  will  contain  such  papers  relating  to  the  general  purpose  of  its  work  as  do  not 
come  properly  under  the  heads  of  Annual  Reports,  or  Monographs. 

Each  (if  these  Bulletins  will  contain  but  one  paper  aud  be  complete  in  itself.  They  will,  however,  be  num- 
bered in  a  continuous  series,  and  will  in  time  be  united  into  volumes  of  convenient  size.  To  facilitate  this  each 
Bulletin  will  have  two  paginations,  one  proper  to  itself  and  another  which  belongs  to  it  as  part  of  the  volume. 

Of  this  series  of  Bulletins  No.  1  is  already  published,  viz : 

1.  On  Hypersthene-Andesite  and  on  Triclinic  Pyroxene  in  Augitic  Rocks,  by  Whitman  Cross,  with  a  Geo- 
logical Sketch  of  Buifalo  Peaks,  Colorado,  by  S.  F.  Emmons.    1883,  6°,  40  pp.     Price  10  cents. 

Correspondence  relating  to  the  publications  of  the  Survey,  and  all  remittances,  should  be  addressed 
to  the 

DiKBCTOR  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  GEOLOGICAL  SUEVEY, 

Washington,  D.  C. 

Washington,  D.  C,  March,  1, 1883. 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR 


MONOGRAPHS 


United  States  Geological  Survey 


VOLUME    IV 


WASHINGTON 

GOVERNMENT     TRINTING     OFFICE 
18  8,", 


UNITED    STATES    GEOLOGICAL   SURVEY 
CLARENCE  KING  DIRECTOR 


COMSTOCK 


MINING  AND  MINEES 


By    ELIOT    T.OKT) 


WASHINGTOX 

GOVERNMENT    PRINTING   OFFICl 
1883 


DEPARTMENT  OF  THE  INTERIOR, 

United  States  Geological  Survey, 

New  York,  March  1,  1882. 

Sir:  I  have  the  honor  to  transmit  for  your  approval  the  accompany- 
ing report  upon  Comstock  Mining  and  Miners,  prepared  under  the  direction 
of  the  Hon.  Clarence  King,  late  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey,  and 
recording  the  development  of  this  notable  district  from  the  first  discovery 
of  the  precious  metals  within  its  borders  to  the  close  of  the  year  1880. 

Very  respectfully, 

ELIOT  LORD. 

Hon.  J.  W.  Powell, 

Director  United  States  Geological  Survey, 

Washington,  D.  C. 


(vii) 


FREF^CE. 


The  monograph  which  I  was  instructed  to  prepare  upon  Gomstock 
Mining  and  Miners  is  not  a  memoir  of  merely  local  importance  and  inter- 
est, but  the  record  of  a  struggle  which  has  materially  affected  the  mining 
interests  of  the  world.  It  is  the  story  of  the  birth  of  the  silver-mining 
industry  in  this  country,  and  it  portrays  as  well  the  most  vigorous  growth 
of  that  industry.  The  simple  narrative  is,  in  truth,  not  less  marvelous 
than  an  Arabian  tale,  recounting,  as  it  does,  how  a  handful  of  earth  tossed 
away  carelessly  by  a  poor  immigrant  became  the  loadstone  which  drew  a 
swarm  of  men  to  a  desert  avoided  even  by  beasts,  and  how  from  this  clue 
a  thread  of  gold  was  traced  to  its  hidden  source,  and  treasures  rivaling 
the  fancied  store  of  the  young  Aladdin  were  unveiled.  Its  scenes  present 
the  toil  of  placer  miners  in  an  isolated  canon,  the  search  of  pi'ospectors 
for  gold  and  silver,  the  discovery  of  a  world-famous  lode,  the  extraordinary 
migration  called  tersely  the  "  rush  to  Washoe,"  the  life  of  a  turbulent 
mining  camp,  and  its  ultimate  crystallization  into  a  thriving  city. 

It  is  shown,  furthermore,  how  a  barren  peak,  encircled  by  deserts  and 
mountain  ranges,  was  made  the  seat  of  populous  towns,  well  supplied  with 
water,  food,  and  fuel ;  and  how,  in  the  course  of  only  twenty  years,  the 
deepest  and  most  productive  silver  mines  in  the  world  were  excavated  in  a 
gangue  of  crumbling  rock,  in  spite  of  a  constant  influx  of  water  and  an 
unprecedented  increase  of  heat.  By  the  contest  waged  in  this  district  against 
the  forces  of  nature  contributions  of  the  first  importance  to  mining  science 
have  been  furnished;  the  foremost  practical  miners  of  America  have  been 
trained,  and  more  than  three  hundred  millions  of  silver  and  gold  have 
been  wrested  from  the  earth.  Through  the  contention  of  its  rival  locators 
our  national  mining  legislation  was  mainly  shaped,  and  the  colossal  lottery 

(ix) 


X  PEEFACB. 

of  mining-stock  speculation  grew  out  of  the  opportunities  here  first  offered. 
In  the  organization  of  its  mines  as  an  autocratic  guild,  in  the  maintenance 
of  an  arbitrary  standard  of  wages,  and  in  the  resultant  effect  on  the 
industry  of  the  district  and  the  condition  of  the  laboring  class,  the  stu- 
dent of  political  economy  must  needs  be  interested,  and  those  who  seek 
lucrative  investments  in  mining  enterprises  may  care  to  learn  how  the 
chief  silver  mines  of  this  country  have  been  controlled  and  managed,  and 
how  the  great  prizes  in  mining  .are  commonly  allotted,  if  this  noteworthy 
instance  may  indeed  be  accepted  as  typical.  From  this  starting  point  the 
silver  mines  of  the  great  inland  Territories  have  been  sought  out  and 
developed,  and  no  subsequent  discoveries  can  rival  the  influence  of  this 
Lode,  though  they  may  perchance  excel  its  yield  in  richness  and  magni- 
tude. 

To  present  these  varied  themes  clearly  and  fairly  in  a  well-joined 
narrative  has  been  the  aim  of  the  writer.  No  assertion  or  statement  of 
fact  has  been  made  without  the  citation  of  authorities.  If,  in  any  case, 
more  positive  evidence  is  desirable,  its  lack  may  fairly  be  attributed  to 
the  death  of  witnesses  and  the  absence  or  destruction  of  trustworthy 
records.  Cumulative  evidence  has  only  been  cited  when  its  support  was 
clearly  requisite,  but  all  material  obtained  has  been  filed  for  reference 
among  the  manuscript  records  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 
No  minute  examination  has  been  here  essayed  of  subjects  which  have 
been  elaborately  treated  in  the  complementary  reports  already  published 
and  now  in  press.  For  strictly  technical  discussions  of  the  geology, 
chemistry,  physics,  and  mechanics  of  the  Lode,  reference  should  be  made 
to  the  standard  treatises  of  Richthofen,  King,  Church,  and  Hague,  and  to 
the  reports  of  Professor  George  F.  Becker  and  W.  R.  Eckart,  C.  E.,  form- 
ing the  principal  portion  of  the  series  of  volumes  treating  of  the  Comstock 
Lode  as  the  work  was  originally  planned.  It  has  been  judged,  however, 
that  the  investigation  here  attempted  merits  a  place  in  the  annals  of 
mining  in  America,  and  is  fittingly  conducted  under  the  direction  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey. 


co:^TE]srTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF   GOLD. 

The  Eastern  Slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Range — 2  The  Native  Tribes — 3  The  Early  Explorers — 4  Annexa- 
tion of  the  Pacific  Coast — 9  The  Californian  Gold  Discoveries — 9  The  Great  Overland  Migration— 10  First 
Discovery  of  Gold  in  Nevada — 11  The  Peon  Prospectors — 13  The  Famine  of  1850 — 13  The  Desertion 
of  the  Placer — 14 

CHAPTER   II. 

THE   GOLD   CANON   PLACER  MINING   COLONY. 

A  Simple  Autonomy — 15  The  Miners  and  their  Neighbors — 16  A  Patriarchal  Government — 17  A  Mormon 
Ukase — 18  Uprooting  a  Settlement — 18  Daily  Life  in  the  Canon — 19  A  Distant  Supply  Market — '21  A 
Mountain  Courier — 21  The  Wants  of  the  Prospector — 22  The  Exhaustion  of  the  Placer — 24  The  Yield 
of  the  Placer — 24  The  Search  for  Silver — 24  Allen  and  Hosea  Grosh — 25  The  Discovery  of  Silver — 26 
The  Death  of  Hosea  Grosh— 29  A  Terrible  Mid-winter  Journey— 30  The  Death  of  Allen  Grosh— 31  Loss 
of  the  Location  Records — 32 

CHAPTER    III. 

THE   DISCOVERY  OF  THE   COMSTOCK   LODK. 

The  Columbia  Quartz  Mining  District— 33  The  First  Location — 34  The  Virginia  Ledge — 35  Lax  Mining 
Laws— 35  The  Gold  Hill  Locations— 36  The  Fountain  Head  of  The  Placers— 37  A  Chance  Discovery- 
SB  A  Successful  Impostor — 38  The  Right  of  Entry  on  Mineral  Lands— 39  The  Gold  Hill  Mining  Dis- 
trict— 40  A  Miner's  Meeting— 40  Anarchic  Condition  of  the  Gold  Canon  Colony— 41  Foundation,  Char- 
acter, and  Value  of  District  Mining  Laws — 42  The  District  Code — 48  Its  Inherent  Defects — 44  Usual 
Method  of  Locating  Ledges — 45  Typical  Ledge  Locations — 45  Violations  of  District  Laws — 49  The 
Method  of  Recording  Locations — 53     The  Lode  Unveiled — 55 

CHAPTER    IV. 

THE   MINING   CAMP. 

The  Task  presented  to  Capital  and  Labor — 56  Transformation  of  the  Early  Colony — 57  The  Influx  of  Pros- 
pectors— 57  Position  of  the  First  Locators — 59  Transfer  of  Titles— 60  Early  Lode  Development — 61 
The  Winter  Camps— 64  The  Rush  to  Washoe— 65  The  Indian  War— 68  The  Rush  Renewed— 71  Power- 
lessness  of  the  District  Officials — 74  Estrangement  of  the  Territorial  Government — 75  Turbulent  Life  of 
the  Camps — 75 

CHAPTER   V. 

THE  FOUNDATION   OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN. 

The  Foundation  of  a  Great  Mining  Town — ^77  A  Speculative  Mania — 77  Development  of  the  Quartz  Milling 
Industry — 80  The  Treatment  of  Silver  Ores — 81  Invention  of  the  Washoe  Pan  Process — 82  The  Pioneer 
Qaartz  Mill — 84  Development  of  the  Lode — 88  Unforeseen  Difficulties— 89  Square  Set  Timbering — 90 
Unsystematic  Mine  Working — 91  Virginia  Mining  District  Laws— 91  Life  in  the  Mining  Camps— 92  Wages 
and  Cost  of  I.iiving— 95    The  Growing  City — 96 

(xi) 


xii  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    VI. 

THE   INEVITABLE   LITIGATION. 

Ownership  of  the  Lode  Clahns — 97  Distribution  of  the  Ore  Deposits — 98  Conflicting  Theories — 98  Parallel 
Ledge  Locations— 99  The  District  Court— 101  Characteristic  Trials — 101  The  Rival  Judges — 104  A 
Fortified  Claim— 106  An  Extraordinary  Posse  Comitatus — 107  Surrender  of  the  Garrison — 107  Two 
Judges  but  no  Court — 108 

CHAPTER   VII. 

CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES. 

The  Division  of  Utah — 109  The  New  Territorial  Organization — 109  The  First  Governor  of  Nevada — 109  His 
Reception  at  Virginia  City — 110  A  Troubled  Province — 110  Reign  of  Lawlessness — 111  Repression  of 
RuiJianism — 112  The  Quartz  Milling  Industry — 113  Sanguine  Mill  Builders — 114  A  Natural  Disappoint- 
ment— 115  Waste  of  the  Precious  Metals — 117  The  Washoe  Pan  Process  Perfected — 118  Experiments 
in  the  Nevada  Mills— 122  Absurd  Processes  of  Reduction — 122  Cosily  Mills— 123  Prodigal  Ideas  of  the 
Time — 125    Wasteful  Mine  Management — 126    Extraordin.ary  Expenses — 128 

CHAPTER   VIII. 

INTERMINABLE   LITIGATION. 

Individual  and  Corporate  Ownership  of  Claims — 131  Opening  of  the  District  Court — 132  A  Multitude  of  Mining 
Suits — 132  The  Issue  of  the  Trials — 134  Methods  of  Prosecution  and  Defense — 135  The  Surest  Confirma- 
tion of  Title— 136  The  Resort  to  Force — 136  Underground  Contests — 136  Ophir  Mining  Company  vs. 
Burning  iloscow  Mining  Company — 137  Bitterness  and  Uncertain  Issue  of  the  Litigation— 144  A  Note- 
worthy Plan  of  Compromise — 145  A  Leading  Attorney — 145  His  Conduct  of  Mining  Suits — 146  His 
Appeal  to  a  Jury— 147  The  Yellow  Jacket  Mining  Companj-  vs.  the  Union  Mining  Company — 147  The 
Sierra  Nevada  Miniug  Company  vs.  the  American  Jliiiing  Company — 148  The  Chollar  Mining  Company 
vs.  the  Potosi  Mining  Company — 151  A  Protracted  Contest — 154  An  Unique  Judicial  Bench — 157  Con- 
tradictory Decisions — 159  Popular  Indignation — 161  The  Resignation  of  the  Territorial  Bench — 162  The 
T^ast  Underground  Contest — 165  The  Parallel  Ledge  Theory — 163  The  Gould  and  Curry  Mining  Company 
m.  the  North  Potosi  Miniug  Company — 166  Report  of  the  Referee — 168  A  Burdensome  Litigation — 172 
Termination  of  the  Chollar-Potosi  Suits — 173  Burning  Moscow  Mining  Company  vs.  Ophir  Mining  Com- 
pany— 174     Result  of  Four  Years  Contest — 177     District  and  Territorial  Mining  Laws — 178 

CHAPTER  IX. 

INDUSTRIAL  CONKLICTS. 
Exhaustion  of  the  Surface  Ore  Bodies — Itil  Prostration  of  the  Mining  Industry — 181  Demand  for  Reduction 
of  Expenses — 182  The  Rate  of  Wages — 182  Attitude  of  the  Miners — 182  The  Miners'  Protective  Asso- 
ciation— 183  A  Convenient  Scape-goat — 184  A  Successful  Strike — 184  A  Typical  Caucus — 185  The 
Miners'  League — 185  An  Insidious  Opposiliou—- 18G  Untenable  Position  of  the  League — 187  An  Arbi- 
trary JIanifesto — 188  Dissolution  of  the  League — 190  Creation  of  Sierran  Highways — 191  Transformation  of 
the  Mountaiu  Passes — 191  A  Macadamized  Avenue — 192  Expense  of  Maintenance — 192  Sierran  Freight 
Trains — 192  A  Moving  Caravan — 193  Mountain  Stages — 195  Incidents  of  Travel — 196  The  Over- 
land Telegraph— 197 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE   JIINLKG   CITY. 

Incorporation  of  Virginia  City — 198  Its  Distinctive  Quarters — 199  Life  in  the  Streets — 199  How  its  People  were 
fed,  clothed,  and  lodged — 200  Development  of  Home  Industries — 202  Useful  Mineral  Deposits — 202  The 
Demand  for  Fuel — 203  The  Search  for  Coal — 203  The  Consumption  of  Lumber — 205  Establishment  of 
Gas  Works — 205  Brick  Kilns  and  Potteries — 205  Uniting  Agencies — 205  Establishment  of  Schools—  206 
Foundation  of  Churches— 207  Effect  of  the  Civil  War-207  Characteristic  Liberality— 208  Daily  Life 
of  the  Miners — 209  Their  Emotional  Temperament — 208  Sudden  Revulsions — 209  Molding  Conditions 
—209  The  Passion  for  Gain— 210  Their  Daily  Perils— 210  Dearth  of  Amusement— 210  Effect  of  these 
Conditions— 210  The  Record  of  Crime — 210  Toils  of  the  Mine — 211  Washoe  Amusements — 212  Demor 
alizing  Pleasures — 213  Refining  Influences — 213  The  Taste  for  Reading — 213  Dramatic  Representa 
tions — 214     Mouutain  Gardens — 215 


CONTENTS.  Xlll 

CHAPTER  XI. 

SIX  YKARS  OF  PROGREfS. 
The  Development  of  the  Mines— !il6  Reckless  Mhiiiig — 216  Destruction  of  Mine  Workings — 217  Criminal 
Negligence — 217  Modern  and  Ancient  Safe-guards — 21b  Fatal  Accidents — 219  Memorable  Warnings — 220 
Energetic  Mining — 220  Earlj'  Methods — 220  Substitution  of  Steam-Power— 221  A  Hive  of  Workers — 
221  Hydraulic  Mining — 222  A  Systematic  Plan  of  Mine  Development— 222  The  Second  Line  of  Shafts 
— 223  Method  of  Exploration — 223  A  Record  of  Progress — 225  The  Expaflding  Circle  of  Exploration 
— 227  Mining  Districts  of  Nevada — 228  Extension  of  the  Search — 228  Discoveries  in  Utah,  Montana, 
Idaho,  Arizona,  Colorado,  and  New  Mexico — 229 

CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATER. 
The  Arch  Enemy  of  Miners— 230  The  Rock  Water  Chambers— 231  Flooding  of  tlie  Ophir  Mine— 231  An 
Increasing  Plague — 232  General  Demand  for  Relief— 233  An  Abortive  Scheme — 233  A  Noteworthy 
Enterprise — 233  The  Sutro  Tunnel — 234  Its  Energetic  Designer — 234  Organization  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel 
Company— 234  Prosecution  of  the  Tnnnel  Scheme— 234  An  Unlooked-for  Opposition — 237  Grounds  of 
this  Opposition— 237  Views  of  Mine  Stockholders — 241  Position  of  Adolf  Sutro— 242  His  Apparently 
Hopeless  Undertaking — 243 

CHAPTER   XIII. 

A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION. 
Establishment  of  the  Virginia  City  Branch  of  the  Bank  of  California — 244  Position  of  William  Sharon — 244 
Radical  Changes — 245  Reduction  of  the  Rate  of  Interest  upon  Loans — 245  Bankruptcy  of  Mill  Owners — 
246  A  Transfer  of  Ownership — 246  Organization  of  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company — 246  Its  Service 
and  Power — 247  A  Naturally  Suggested  Measure — 249  Plan  of  the  Virginia  and  Trnckee  Railroad — 250 
The  Plan  Matured — 251  Its  Rapid  Execution — 251  Cost  of  Construction  .and  Equipment — 254  Utility 
of  the  Railroad— 254  Its  Monopoly  of  Freight  Traffic— 255  The  Wood  and  Water  Supply— 256  Wood 
Flumes— 257     Primitive  Water  Works— 258 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

A  HAZARDOUS  TASK. 

The  Business  Outlook  in  1869 — 263     Hazardous  Undertaking  of  William  Sharon  .ind  Associates — ^264     Their 

Services  to  the  Comstock  Lode — 265     Their  Unintentional  Support  of  the  Arbitrary  Standard  of  Wages — 

266     Formation  of  Miners'  Unions — 266     Enforcement  of  their  Regulations — 267     A  Self-inflicted  Injury 

■   — 268     Position  of  the  Small  Capitalists — 268    Responsibility  of  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company — 

268     Mine  Fires — 269    The  Crown   Point-Yellow  Jacket  Mine  Fire — 269     A  Prolonged  and  Desperate 

Contest— 270 

CHAPTER    XV. 

A  FORTUNATE  DELIVERANCE. 
A  Liberal  Creditor — 278  Mine  Supply  Conipanies — 279  An  Insidious  Danger — 279  Exhaustion  of  all  Known 
Ore-bodies— 280  An  Unforeseen  Deliverance— 280  The  Crown  Point  Mine— 280  The  Search  for  Ore— 281 
The  Discovery  of  Crown  Point  Bonanza — 283  Results  of  this  Discovery — 285  Insufficiency  of  Official 
Reports — 286  Position  of  Mine  Stockholders — 286  Temptations  of  their  Agents — 287  Absence  of  General 
Demand  for  Reform — 287  Objectionable  Management  of  Mines — 288  Immediate  HI  Effects  and  Lasting 
I„jury_i;9t  Prevalent  Distrust— 291  A  Shameful  Scandal— 291  A  Stock  Panic— 292  The  Wafer 
Plague — 294  Prosecution  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Scheme — 297  The  Sutro  Tunnel  Commission — 298  Open- 
ing of  the  Tunnel— 300. 

C  HAPTER    XVI. 

THE  GREAT  BONANZA. 
Rival  Combinations — 301  Mine  and  Mill  Acquisitions — 305  Exhaustion  of  Hale  &  Norcross  Ore  Body — 306 
Need  of  a  new  Venture — 406  A  Barren  Section  of  the  Lode — 307  Incompetence  and  Disheartemnent  of 
its  Owners— 307  The  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company— 309  A  Well-planned  Search— 309  The 
Bonanza  Discovered— 310  Astonishing  Developments — 311  Stirring  Scene  in  the  Mine — 312  The  Work- 
ing Force— 312  A  Speculative  Mania — 315  An  Inevit.able  Panic — 316  Censure  of  the  Mine  Managers — 
317  Development  of  the  Bonanza— 319  Its  Yield  ;nul  Returns  to  Stockholders— 3;J0  Rapid  Ore  Extrac- 
tion and  Reduction — 321. 


XIV  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER    XVII. 

FEATS  OF  LABOR. 

The  Demand  for  Water— 322  The  Schussler  System  of  Supply— 323  Au  Extraordinary  Aqueduct— 324  The 
Supply  Tested— 325  A  Mining  City  in  Flames— 326  Destruction  of  Virginia  City— 328  Eebuilding  of 
the  City — 328  Comstock  Mine  Management — 330  Development  of  the  Mines— 331  Extension  of  the 
Schussler  Aqueduct— 332  Tapping  a  Sierrau  Lake — 332  The  Supply  of  Water — 333  The  Supply  of  Ice — 
333  Progress  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel — 333  Difficulties  Surmounted— 334  Rapid  Advance  of  the  Heading — 336 
Perils  and  Pains  of  the  Work — 333  Its  Final  completion — 339  Controversy  with  the  Mine  Companies- 339 
A  Satisfactory  Compromise — 341  Drainage  of  Adjacent  Miues— 342  Cost  of  the  Tunnel — 342  A  Great 
Outflow  of  Water—342  The  "Water  Influx— 343  Comstock  Mine  Pumps— 344  Their  Exacting  Service— 345 
Corresponding  Equipment  of  Jline  and  Mill  Works — 347  Operating  Expenses — 349  Consumption  of  Tim- 
ber, Fuel,  and  Supplies— 351  The  Mine  Workings— 352  Mine  Product  and  Dividends— 353  The  Profits 
of  Mining— 353. 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

THE  LABORERS   OP  WASHOE. 

The  Arbitrary  Standard  of  Wages— 355  Manifesto  of  the  Miners'  Union — 355  Attack  upon  the  Chinese— 356 
Success  of  the  Union — 357  A  Fortified  Monopoly — 358  Origin  and  Maintenance  of  the  Arbitrary  Rate  of 
Wages — 359  Its  Eflect  upon  the  Condition  of  the  Miners — 368  Clothing  and  Lodging  of  the  Miners — 369 
Health  of  the  Miners — 374  Their  Instruction  and  Amusement — 375  The  Consumption  of  Liquor — 377 
The  Criminal  Record— 378  The  Passion  for  Gambling— 379  A  Select  Corps— 380  The  Utility  of  Scaled 
Wages — 381    Prejudice  of  the  Miners'  Union— 38S. 

CHAPTER   XIX. 

PAINS  AND  PERILS   OF   MINING. 

The  Lower  Working  Levels— 389  Intense  Heat  of  the  Atmosphere— 390  Cause  of  the  Increase  of  Heat — 390 
Sufferings  of  the  Miners— 393  Influx  of  Hot  Water— 398  The  Loss  of  Life— 399  Effects  of  Work  in  the 
Hot  Levels  upon  Health — 400  The  Dangers  of  Deep  Mining — 401  A  Record  of  Mine  Accidents— 404 
Effect  of  the  Environment  of  Peril  upon  the  Miners — 405. 

CHAPTER    XX. 

A  SIGNIFICANT  CONTRAST. 

Present  Condition  of  the  District — 407  The  Future  of  Mining  on  the  Lode — 410  The  FutUity  of  Luck — 411 
Fate  of  the  Discoverers  of  the  Lode — 412    The  Lesson  of  the  Record — 414. 

APPENDIX. 

TABLES. 

Table  I.  Location  of  Mines— 415  Table  II.  Product  of  the  Comstock  District  from  1860  to  June  30,  1880— 
416  Table  III.  Financial  Showing  of  Washoe  Mining  Companies  whose  Stocks  were  dealt  in  at  San  Fran- 
cisco Boards  at  the  close  of  the  Census  Year  June  30,  1880 — 419  Table  IV.  Assessments  1880-'81 — 422 
Table  V.  The  Highest  and  Lowest  Prices  of  Comstock  Mining  Stocks  sold  in  San  Francisco  Exchange  from 
1868  to  1879—424  Tables  VI,  VH,  VIH,  IX,  X.  Storey  County  Hospital— 436  Tables  XI,  XII.  Storey 
County  Coroner's  Record  of  Deaths  in  1880-441  Table  XIII.  Criminal  Cases  in  Courts  of  Virginia  City, 
1867,  to  June  30,  1880—444  Table  XIV.  Comparative  Statement  of  Tonnage  of  Virginia  and  Truckee  Rail- 
road for  the  years  1874  to  1879,  inclusive — 446. 

LIST  OF  PLATES. 

Page. 

Plate  I.     Map  of  Placerville  Route 8 

Plate  IL    Map  of  Carson  Valley • 66 

Plate  III.    Map  of  Washoe  District,  Showing  Mining  Claims 352 


COMSTOCK  MINING  AND  MINERS. 


BT    ElilOT    LORD. 


CHAPTER   I. 
THE   DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD. 

The  cloud  banks  blown  overland  from  the  Pacific  are  thrown  in 
masses  against  the  bristling  teeth  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  Repelled  at 
every  point,  they  break  in  rain,  snow,  and  hail  among  the  mountains. 
Winter  storms  tear  their  way  sometimes  through  this  unyielding  barrier 
and  bury  the  hill-tops  beyond  under  eddying  snow-drifts,  but  a  covering 
is  rarely  cast  over  the  deformity  of  the  deserts  below.  Looking  east- 
ward from  any  bare  crag  above  the  tree-belt,  the  eye  sees  no  end  to  these 
desolate  wastes,  and  beyond  the  range  of  vision  they  stretch  unbroken  for 
hundreds  of  miles.  A  few  shallow  rivers,  fed  by  the  mountain  snows, 
wander  in  narrow  beds  through  the  canons  and  valleys,  vanishing  at 
length  in  alkaline  sloughs,  or  pouring  their  wasted  streams  into  brackish 
lakes ;  broken  fringes  of  green  mark  their  winding  courses — the  only  relief 
to  the  sombre  tints  of  the  landscape. 

Yet,  viewed  from  this  distance,  the  naked  barrenness  of  the  land  is 
less  obtrusive.  The  simple  outlines  of  the  weather-beaten  ridges  blend 
with  the  enveloping  haze  and  clear-cut  shadows  fall  on  the  rolling  plains. 
A  soft  drapery  of  worn  brown  velvet,  with  glinting  threads  of  warmer 


2  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

hue,  seems  to  cover  the  hills,  and  tracks  of  clay  gleam  white,  like  frozen 
lakes,  in  the  ashen-hued  desert.  Over  all  towers  a  sky  dome  of  clearest 
blue,  flushed  with  the  splendor  of  noon  or  glittering  coldly  with  stars. 

Descend  into  the  midst  of  the  desert  and  look  closely  around.  The 
soft  brown  slopes  are  changed  to  scarred  and  crumbling  heaps  of  rocks, 
the  shining  lakes  to  beds  of  alkaline  earth  seamed  with  innumerable 
cracks,  and  the  grey  plains  to  wastes  of  sand  dotted  thickly  with  clumps 
of  sage  brush.  Here  and  there  at  long  intervals  stalks  of  bunch-grass 
thrust  their  stiff  blades  out  of  the  arid  soil,  covered  often  with  clinging 
crystals  of  salt  which  sparkle  like  frost  in  the  sunlight.  Dusky  lizards 
dart  about  among  the  blackened  rocks  of  the  isolated  ridges,  and  lizards 
with  yellow  backs  sprawl  on  the  hot  sand.  A  little  flock  of  sparrows  may 
hover  about  some  mountain  spring,  a  coyote  sometimes  ambles  over  the 
hills,  and  jack-rabbits  scurry  through  the  sage  brush  in  ridiculous  alarm, 
but  the  oppressive  stillness  is  rarely  broken  by  the  movement  of  anything 
with  life.  Nature  seems  to  sleep,  except  when  the  brooding  air  is  stirred 
by  the  passage  of  clouds  and  columns  of  feathery  dust  borne  by  eddying 
whirlwinds  over  the  desert.  The  sight  recalls  the  words  of  Marco  Polo, 
describing  the  deserts  about  Khubees,  "where  there  is  neither  fruit  nor 
trees,  and  the  water  is  bitter  and  bad,  so  that  a  traveler  must  carry  it  and 
food  for  himself,  but  the  beasts  drink  that  on  the  road,  though  very 
unwillingly."  ^  It  was  over  this  dreary  land  that  the  Mexican  guide  of 
Fremont  pointed,  from  the  mountain  pass  at  the  head  of  the  river  San 
Joaquin.  "There,"  said  he,  "there  are  the  great  llanos.  There  is  neither 
water  nor  grass — every  animal  which  goes  out  upon  them  dies." 

The  most  pitiless  of  tyrants  might  hesitate  to  exile  his  enemy  to  such 
an  earthly  hell,  but  the  people  who  have  been  doomed  to  live  in  this  deso- 
late region  make  no  complaint  and  wish  for  no  better  home.  To  endure 
their  condition  without  a  murmur  might  well  be  counted  a  mark  of  sur- 
passing fortitude,  but  to  love  a  country  such  as  this  appears  a  well-nigh 
incredible  prejudice  of  patriotism;  yet  it  is  said  that  the  tribes  who  have 
wandered  for  an  unknown  term  of  years  on  this  American  Sahara  cling 

'  Travels  of  Marco  Polo.— (Trans,  by  Hugh  Murray,  F.  E.  S.  E.,  p.  226.) 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD.  3 

to  their  wretched  homes  with  an  instinctive  devotion  not  less  intense  than 
the  yearnings  of  the  exiled  Swiss  for  the  green  valleys  of  the  Tyrol.^ 

It  does  not  lie  within  the  scope  of  this  narrative  to  speak  in  detail  of 
the  life  of  the  Shoshones  and  Bannocks,  of  the  Apaches  and  Navajos, 
included  in  the  Shoshonian  and  Athabascan  families,  the  chief  stocks 
holding  possession  of  the  Great  Basin  from  the  Columbia  to  the  Rio  del 
Grande,^  but  their  character  and  condition  may  be  briefly  outlined. 

The  published  journals  of  the  earlier  explorers  of  the  Great  Basin 
are  full  of  high-seasoned  descriptions  of  the  native  inhabitants,  which 
must  be  accepted  with  due  allowances  for  the  embellishments  of  fancy  and 
for  errors  arising  from  a  limited  or  unfavorable  period  of  observation.  The 
Apache,  for  instance,  has  been  pictured  as  malignant,  cruel,  and  treacher- 
ous in  the  extreme,  but  he  is  rarely  credited  with  the  few  savage  virtues 
which  he  actually  possesses,  while  the  Shoshonian  tribes  have  been  ac- 
counted the  very  dregs  of  humanity,  so  depraved  indeed  that,  as  Bancroft 
writes — "  there  is  surely  room  for  no  missing  link  between  them  and  the 
brutes."  => 

The  truth  is,  that  the  Shoshones,  as  compared  with  the  other  Indian 
tribes  of  this  country,  fall  somewhat  below  the  average  in  vigor  of  mind 
and  body,  but  they  are  by  no  means  the  lowest  of  the  race,*  and  it  is 
absurd  to  class  them  with  the  Veddas  of  Ceylon  or  some  of  the  Australian 
tribes.  Their  mode  of  life  had  many  features  in  common  with  the  better 
class  of  tribes,  but  the  dreary  and  barren  nature  of  the  region  where  they 
lived  and  the  hostility  of  stronger  tribes  reduced  them  sometimes  to  the 
direst  straits,  when  they  were  forced  to  devour  lizards,  grasshoppers,  roots, 
and  grass  seeds,  and  even  "in  a  fiercer  agony  of  hunger  to  eat  the  dead 
bodies  of  their  starved  companions  or  to  kill  their  children  for  food."^  It 
is  the  picture  of  these  unfortunate  beings  when  under  the  stress  of  starva- 
tion which  has  been  handed  down  as  the  representative  one,  and  their 
normal  condition  has  been  rarely  noted  or  described  with  accuracy.  If 
their  life  had  its  dark  side,  it  was  by  no  means  unrelieved,  for  seasons  of 
scarcity  were  followed  by  seasons  of  plenty,  when  the  animal  improvidence 

'  Bancroft's  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  States,  vol.  I,  p.  441. 

^ Major  J.  W.  Powell.  'Bancroft's  Native  Races,  vol.  I,  pp.  427-440. 

■*  Major  J.  W.  Powell.  ^  Bancroft's  Native  Races,  vol.  I,  pp.  427-440. 


4  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

which  characterizes  their  social  state  led  them  to  revel  in  the  present, 
which  contained  for  them  no  reminder  of  the  bitterness  of  the  past  or  of 
the  sure  privations  of  the  future. 

Yet  such  is  the  nature  of  the  region  bordering  upon  the  eastern  slope 
of  the  Sierras,  and  such  the  character  of  its  savage  inhabitants,  that  forty 
years  ago  no  territory  in  America  seemed  more  unlikely  to  attract  a  swarm 
of  colonists.  Except  along  its  northern  boundary  there  was  nothing  to 
tempt  the  entrance  of  the  intrepid  fur  trader,  and  even  the  undaunted 
Jesuit  missionaries  contented  themselves  with  maintaining  the  white 
crosses  of  their  stations  on  its  border  line.  Thus  the  outside  world 
knew  and  cared  to  know  but  little  of  this  broad  and  seemingly  worthless 
tract,  and  the  homes  of  the  Basin  tribes  would  have  been  secure  from  intru- 
sion to  this  day  had  it  not  been  for  the  discovery  of  the  treasures  hoarded 
up  in  the  barren  ridges  and  canons. 

East  of  the  main  chain  of  the  Sierra  Nevada,  between  the  parallels  of 
38°  and  41  °,  lies  a  range  of  hills  separated  from  the  great  Sierra  by  three 
narrow  valleys.  Low  cross  spurs  near  the  centre  of  the  range  connect  it 
with  the  mountain  chain  and  form  a  continuous  rim  to  the  shallow  basin 
of  the  central  valley.  A  miniature  lake,  fringed  with  woods  in  early  days, 
hes  in  the  basin,  which  received  the  name  of  Wash-o,  from  a  distinctive 
tribe  so  called,  whose  fishing  grounds  were  bounded  on  the  north  by  a 
conventional  line  which  crossed  this  valley.  The  territory  north  of  this 
line,  as  far  as  the  cluster  of  lakes  on  the  parallel  of  40°,  was  held  by  the 
Nyumas,^  a  tribe  of  the  Shoshonian  family,  and  their  lodges  were  scattered 
along  the  hne  of  a  river  which  flowed  down  the  northernmost  of  these 
valleys  into  the  deep  green  waters  of  the  lake  named  Pyramid  by  Fremont, 
who  first  caught  sight  of  it,  "set  like  a  gem  in  the  mountains,"  on  the 
10th  of  January,  1844.' 

Near  the  mouth  of  the  river,  among  groves  of  cottonwood,  was  the 
main  village  of  the  fortunate  Nyumas,^who  had  secured  possession  of  one 
of  the  few  oases  of  the  Great  Basin.  Here  they  lived,  well  fed  and  peace- 
fully, except  for  an  occasional  wrangle  with  the  neighboring  Wash-o  tribe. 


'  Or  Kti-yu-\vi-ti-kut-teh,  sucker-eatei-s,  (probably  a  species  of  carp,)  a  tribe  of  the  Pai-fi-te  nation.     Ste- 
phen Powers,  Special  Agent  Smithsonian  Institution. 

2  Fremont's  Expeditions,  p.  216.  •     '  Fremont's  Expeditions,  pp.  218,  219. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OP  GOLD.  5 

over  whom  they  domineered  as  a  weaker  and  ahen  people.  In  mental 
and  physical  traits,  as  well  as  in  language,  the  distinction  between  these 
tribes  was  strongly  marked.  The  bodies  of  the  Wash-o  were  short  and 
sturdy,  with  broad  fat  hips  supported  by  bowed  legs.  Heavy  cheeks, 
smeared  with  red  earth,  drooped  like  dewlaps  below  the  sensual  mouth 
and  short  flat  nose.  In  the  pear-shaped  face  were  small  deep-set  black 
eyes,  sometimes  twinkling  and  merry,  sometimes  somnolent  and  bleared. 
Coarse  black  hair  grew  low  down  on  the  narrow  forehead  and  fell  about 
the  neck  and  cheeks  in  a  thick  mop.  The  hands  and  feet  were  small  and 
shapely,  but  the  form  otherwise  was  clumsy  and  ungainly.  Scanty  cover- 
ings of  patched  and  dirty  skins  wei'e  wound  about  the  copper-colored 
bodies,  but  the  natural  layers  of  fat  were  the  main  protection  against  the 
winter  winds. 

The  Nyumas,  on  the  other  hand,  were  taller  and  lighter  colored  as  a 
class  than  the  Wash-o,  their  complexion  having  a  peculiar  ashen  tint. 
The  typical  Nyumas  of  middle  age  had  wide  cheek  bones  and  a  lean,  long 
face,  with  sunken  cheeks  and  heavy  superciliary  ridges  over  the  large 
black  eyes,  which  stared  about  with  keen,  hungry  looks,  quite  different 
from  the  tranquil  and  sensuous  gaze  of  the  Wash-o.^ 

In  general  habits  of  life,  however,  the  tribes  differed  Httle.  Their 
wants  were  few  and  easily  supplied.  With  lines  of  wild  flax  fiber  thrown 
deftly  into  the  water  they  caught  fish  in  abundance,  and  lying  on  tulle 
rafts— light  bundles  of  reeds— the  Nyumas  skirted  the  shores  of  the  lakes, 
or,  crouching  under  a  screen  of  bushes,  ventured  far  out  on  the  wind- 
swept surface.^  From  the  wild  cane  growing  about  the  edge  of  the  lake 
they  made  floats  by  which  their  fishing  lines  were  buoyed  in  deep  water, 
while  the  ease-loving  natives  watched  the  bobbing  specks  from  the  shore. 
Sometimes  the  men  made  short  hunting  excursions  into  the  Sierran  foot- 
hills in  search  of  bears,  elk,  deer,  antelope,  as  well  as  the  smaller  animals, 
such  as  red  foxes  and  squirrels.  The  sage-covered  plains  abounded  with ' 
hares,  and  this  little  animal  was  made  to  play  a  very  important  part  in  the 
domestic  economy  of  the  Shoshonian  tribes,  for  not  all  among  them  were 


'  Manuscript :  "  The  Indians  of  Western  Nevada."  Stephen  Powers,  Special  Agent  Smithsonian  Institution' 
'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  3,  1873.     (Pyramid  Lake  and  adjacent  lakes.) 


6  HISTOEY  OP  THE  OOMSTOCK  LODE. 

good  hunters,  and  the  larger  game  offered  a  less  certain  supply  of  food 
than  the  hares,  which  were  killed  in  great  numbers  by  means  of  the  bow 
and  arrow,  various  snares  and  traps,  and  by  "  surrounds,"  in  which  many 
individuals  took  part.  It  was  the  hide  of  this  animal,  with  its  covering 
of  fur,  that,  cut  into  strips  and  ingeniously  sewn  together  into  mantles, 
served  as  an  admirable  protection  in  winter.  In  the  autumn,  before  the 
first  frosts  touched  the  pines,  the  women  pulled  the  green,  tight-closed 
cones  from  the  trees  and  spread  them  in  layers  on  the  ground.  The 
pitch-smeared  husks  burned  hotly  when  a  few  embers  were  thrown  among 
them,  and  the  roasted  nuts  rattled  out  freely  as  the  women  struck  the 
opening  burs  sharply  with  stones.  A  few  weeks  later  the  ripe  nuts  were 
thrashed  from  the  boughs  with  long  poles.^ 

Their  favored  position  on  the  line  of  a  stream  abounding  in  fish 
saved  them  from  the  terrible  destitution  which  afflicted  other  tribes  of  the 
Great  Basin  during  the  winter  season.  They,  of  all  others,  had  reason 
to  trust  in  the  care  of  a  supreme  and  beneficent  Deity,  and  naturally  their 
ideas  of  an  overruling  Providence  were  more  definite  and  well  established. 

As  spring  advanced  and  they  could  bask  as  before  in  the  unclouded 
rays  of  a  desert  sun,  stretching  their  fat  bodies  lazily  on  the  sprouting 
grass,  they  bethought  themselves  of  the  existence  of  a  spirit  whose  benign 
care  they  had  experienced  during  the  past  and  whose  favor  during  the 
coming  months  they  wished  to  gain.  At  the  command  of  their  chief  they 
repaired  to  the  bare  top  of  some  neighboring  hill  and  built  a  circle  of  rude 
huts  where  the  ground  was  most  nearly  level.  In  the  centre  of  each  of 
these  circular  piles  of  sage  brush  and  pine  boughs  a  small  fire  was  kindled, 
and  outside  of  each  hut  a  heap  of  pine  boughs  blazed  up  brightly  as  the 
sun  went  down.^  When  the  light  of  the  burning  boughs  flashed  over  the 
hut-inclosed  circle,  a  ring  of  men  and  women  was  silently  formed,  dressed 
in  scanty  mantles  of  rabbit  skins  or  short  clouts  of  willow  fiber,  with  a 
few  ragged  feathers,  it  may  be,  in  their  coarse  black  hair.  Then,  at  a 
given  signal,  the  circle  slov/ly  revolved  like  a  great  water-wheel,  from 
right  to  left,  keeping  time  to  a  low  monotonous  chant,  all  standing  close 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  September  19,  1873.— Stephen  Powers. 

° Territorial  Enterprise,  April  15,  1871. — "Indian  religious  dance  and  chants." 


THE  DISCOVEET  OF  GOLD.  7 

together  with  toes  pointing  toward  the  centre  of  the  ring,  and  bodies 
circling  around  as  a  solid  mass,  the  feet  only  appearing  to  move  separately 
as  they  glided  sideways  a  few  inches  with  each  rhythmical  beat.  From 
dusk  to  dawn  this  dance  was  kept  up,  the  tired  performers  dropping  out 
one  by  one  to  make  room  for  others,  and  returning  to  their  places  as  they 
became  rested.  The  chants  were  varied,  but  all  were  addressed  to  the 
Great  Spirit  "Pah-Ah,"  water  god  or  water  giver,  asking  that  he  would 
grant  them  a  good  crop  of  pine  nuts,  or  success  in  hunting  and  fishing. 
When  the  sun  rose,  the  ring  was  broken,  the  fires  extinguished,  and  the 
dancers  returned  to  their  every-day  occupations  of  fishing  and  sleeping. 
Of  this  sort,  varying  in  particulars  but  the  same  in  general  nature,  were 
the  religious  practices  of  these  tribes.^ 

Such  in  brief  was  the  life  of  the  people  whom  Fremont  found  in  the 
valley  of  the  Truckee,  for  so  he  named  the  river  in  honor  of  their  white- 
haired  chief.  Ascending  this  river  his  party  crossed  a  low  ridge  of  brown 
hills  January  17,  1844,  and  reached  the  banks  of  another  stream  which 
flowed  in  a  nearly  opposite  direction.^  He  had  entered  the  fairest  valley 
of  the  eastern  slope,  and  yet  how  dreary  was  its  aspect.  To  his  right  rose 
the  dark,  green  wall  of  the  Sierras,  capped  with  irregular  turrets  of  snow, 
and  sloping  upward  steeply  from  the  valley  level.  On  the  left,  bare,  red- 
dish-brown hills  were  piled  up  stiffly,  like  round-topped  sugar  loaves,  in 
a  broad  range,  lying  nearly  parallel  with  the  Sierras.  Narrow  winding 
ravines  or  canons  cut  this  hill  chain  at  intervals,  their  steep  slopes  black 
with  dry  stunted  cedars  and  underbrush,  and  between  the  ranges  lay  the 
flat  ash-colored  tract  through  which  the  little  river  ran,  hidden  from  sight 
until  the  explorers  reached  its  bank,  though  marked  by  patches  of  tall 
sycamores  and  plume-like  poplars  in  a  dotted  line  through  the  valley. 
From  the  foot  of  the  hills  to  the  river  border  the  valley  was  a  rolling 
plain  of  sage  brush  and  sand  in  no  way  more  fertile  than  the  deserts  which 
partly  inclosed  it.  The  little  sierran  stream  ran  like  a  courier  from  the 
mountains  to  the  desert,  only  slackening  speed  at  a  few  shallow  basins 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  April  19,  1871. — "Purport  of  chants,  derived  from  old  residents  speaking  Pah- 
Ute  language  fluently,  as  well  as  from  members  of  tribe." 

Territorial  Enterprise,  January  16,  1870. — "  Pah-Ute  religious  rite." 
°  Fremont's  Expeditions,  p.  319. 


3  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

where  it  overflowed  the  land  in  spring,  half  submerging  the  fringe  of 
bushy  trees  and  broad-leaved  sedge.  In  these  green  marshes  birds  carolled 
and  twittered  gayly,  resting,  after  their  flight  over  the  arid  plains,  in  the 
fresh-leaved  thickets  or  dipping  with  splattering  wings  in  the  cool  water ; 
but  when  Fremont  passed  by,  the  birds  had  flown  and  the  oases  were 
dreary  groves  of  brown  leafless  trees,  bristling  evergreens,  and  shivering 
reeds.  A  few  crows,  beating  the  air  with  heavy  wings  in  their  low  flight 
above  the  bleak  stretches  of  sage  brush,  only  added  by  their  presence  to 
the  desolation  of  the  scene.  As  the  explorers  passed  down  the  valley 
they  heard  no  sound  except  of  their  own  voices  and  of  the  sand  crushed 
under  the  feet  of  their  horses,  and  they  saw  no  signs  of  human  life  except 
straggling  Indian  lodges  and  fish-dams,  for  the  natives  had  run  away  in 
ignorant  terror  to  the  hills  from  which  in  covert  the  passage  of  the  little 
troop  was  curiously  watched.^ 

Fremont  named  the  valley  Carson,  in  honor  of  his  well-known  guide, 
but  did  not  explore  the  region  thoroughly,  as  his  pack  animals  were 
fatigued  and  foot-sore  and  he  was  anxious  to  cross  the  Sierras  as  speedily 
as  possible  in  order  to  recruit  at  the  hospitable  ranch  of  John  A.  Sutter, 
in  the  valley  of  the  Sacramento.  Besides,  there  was  nothing  which 
tempted  him  to  linger  in  sight  of  the  barren  hills,  which  were  indeed  ugly 
caskets  for  the  deposit  of  treasure. 

So  far  as  is  known,  this  was  the  first  party  of  white  men  which  trav- 
eled south  along  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras,  though  venturesome 
trappers  had  crossed  different  sections  in  their  wanderings.^  Whatever 
transient  communication  may  have  taken  place,  it  is  certain  at  least  that 
none  of  the  explorers  and  pioneers  had  any  thought  of  remaining  in  this 

'  Fremont's  Expeditions,  p.  219. 

^  Captain  Joseph  E.  Walker,  who  followed  the  course  of  the  Humboldt  River  in  1833,  crossed  from  its 
slough  directly  to  the  river  which  bears  his  name,  and  climbed  the  Sierras  by  the  pass  at  its  head.— (Manuscript 
Records,  Bancroft's  Library.)  The  pioneers  under  Bartleston,  who  left  the  Kansas  River  in  May,  1841,  followed 
Walker's  route  quite  closely,  and  entered  the  Sieri'as  like  liim  by  ascending  a  branch  of  the  Walker  River. — ("A 
Journey  to  California,"  General  John  Bidwell  and  Manuscript  Records.)  Jedediah  S.  Smith,  the  first  white  man 
who  is  known  to  have  crossed  the  Great  Basin,  passed  over  the  Sierras  three  times  in  1826  and  1827,  but  crossed 
in  all  probability  by  routes  south  of  Walkei-'s  Pass,  though,  he,  too,  skirted  twice  the  course  of  the  river  now 
called  the  Humboldt,  to  which  he  gave  the  name  of  his  Indian  wife  Mary. — (Manuscript  Records,  Bancroft's 
Library,  San  Francisco,  Cal. ;  Oration  of  Edmund  Randolph,  delivered  September  10,  1860,  before  the  Society 
of  California  Pioneers.)  Fremont  noticed  that  the  Indians  at  the  mouth  of  the  Truckee  River  had  a  few  buttons, 
which  may  have  been  obtained  from  a  former  unknown  visitor  or  indirectly  from  the  parties  of  Bartleston  and 
Walker 


^ ! 


^.  J 


_  _.  _  1. 


MAI'  III'  Till-:  i'i..\ri:K\'ii,i.i':  liDrri:, 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD.  g 

desert  region  or  of  interfering  with  the  possessory  rights  of  its  native 
inhabitants.  The  chance  visitations  scarcely  produced  a  ripple  in  the 
placid  current  of  their  lives,  and  the  passage  of  the  train  of  Fremont  was 
remembered  only  as  a  pleasant  vision,  which  the  old  chief  babbled  about 
in  his  dotage  to  his  grandchildren.^ 

The  march  of  the  Mormon  Legion  and  of  the  few  hundred  regular 
troops  who  were  hurrying  forward  to  grasp  the  empire  of  the  Pacific  coast 
impressed  them  only  as  a  novel  spectacle.  Even  on  the  2d  of  February, 
1848,  the  tribe  were  angling  for  trout  as  placidly  as  ever,  ignorant  that  by 
the  signature  of  the  treaty  of  Guadalupe  Hidalgo  their  fishing  grounds 
were  transferred  from  one  nation  to  another,  and  that  they  were  thence- 
forth the  wards  of  a  more  jealous  guardian.  In  the  natural  but  slow 
movement  of  farmers  and  herdsmen  to  the  Californian  valleys  which  fol- 
lowed the  annexation  of  the  new  territory  there  was  nothing  which  could 
alarm  them,  but  the  first  cloud  above  their  horizon  appeared  when  the 
great  stream  of  migration  began  to  flow  across  the  continent  after  positive 
information  in  regard  to  the  gold  placers  of  California  was  given,  in  the 
spring  and  summer  of  1848. 

The  train  of  emigrants  which  crossed  the  plains  in  the  following  year 
had  no  eyes  to  see  the  possible  riches  of  the  land  through  which  they 
were  passing,  for  their  faces  were  set  steadfastly  toward  the  glittering 
beacon  beyond  the  Sierras.  After  leaving  Salt  Lake,  indeed,  there  was 
little  temptation  to  straggle  out  of  the  beaten  path.  Rocks  and  sage  brush 
bounded  the  horizon  on  every  side.  Their  provisions  were  failing,  their 
cattle  were  worn  out,  and  their  only  trustworthy  guide  in  the  desert  was 
the  narrow  track  of  the  multitude  which  had  gone  on  before.  They 
moved  between  Scylla  and  Charybdis.  "We  were  cautioned,"  writes  John 
Bidwell,  the  chronicler  of  the  Bartleston  party,  in  1841,  "that  if  we  got 
too  far  south  we  would  get  into  the  Great  Sandy  Desert;  if  too  far  north, 
we  would  wander  and  starve  on  the  waters  of  the  Columbia,  there  being 
no  possibility  of  getting  through  that  way."^ 

If  they  loitered  by  any  chance  on  the  road,  the  story  of  the  horrible  fate 
of  the  Donner  party  was  dinn  ed  into  their  ears  and  the  perils  of  a  late  passage 

'  Sarah  Winnemucca.  "A  Journey  to  California,  p.  15. 


10  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

over  the  Sierras  filled  their  minds.  At  every  step  the  white,  choking  alkali 
dust  rose  in  clouds.  Their  faces  were  burned  and  sore,  their  lips  cracked 
and  bleeding,  and  their  bodies  stiff  and  aching.  The  orderly  file  of  white- 
topped  wagons  became  often  a  straggling  line ;  panting  oxen  dragged  their 
heavy  feet  through  the  mire  of  the  Humboldt  slough  only  to  fall  dying 
on  the  sands  of  the  40-Mile  desert,  almost  within  sight  of  life-giving 
grass  and  water.  Their  wretched  bodies  were  left  to  the  coyotes  and  crows; 
wagon  after  wagon  was  abandoned,  and  the  broken  train  crawled  on  to 
the  valley  of  the  Carson,  the  last  oasis  on  their  route.  When  the  narrow 
stream  with  its  fringe  of  grass  and  trees  was  reached,  men  shouted,  women 
laughed  and  cried,  and  the  dust-choked  horses  and  oxen  snorted  and  lowed 
with  passionate  thirst.  The  cattle  rushed  headlong  into  the  river  bed, 
and  more  than  one  emigrant  followed  their  example  and  plunged  his 
parched  face  into  the  water,  drinking  by  gulps  like  the  horses."^  The 
narrow  stretch  of  thin  grass  cut  by  a  winding  brook  was  transfigured  by  its 
contrast  to  the  desert  which  they  had  crossed.  Ten  years  later  Horace 
Greeley  called  it  as  fair  a  valley  as  he  had  seen,^  though  he  was  whirled 
over  the  plains  by  relays  of  horses,  while  the  emigrants  of  1849  moved 
slowly  and  painfully  with  tired  cattle.  After  a  few  days,  however,  the 
contrast  appeared  less  vivid  and  the  emigrants  were  eager  to  press  on 
over  the  mountains  to  the  land  of  gold.  When  the  winter  snows  fell, 
cutting  off  the  approaches,  the  valley  was  deserted  except  by  the  Indians, 
who  had  watched  curiously  during  the  summer  the  passage  of  this  strange 
procession.  Unlike  the  fiercer  tribes  to  the  north  and  south,  the  natives 
of  the  valley  showed  no  disposition  to  repel  the  intruders.  Favored  ones 
of  their  number  stalked  about  attired  in  white  hats  or  tin  basins,  the  gift 
of  the  emigrants,  and  the  tribe  quickly  learned  the  three  most  attractive 
English  words — whisky,  tobacco,  and  bread. 

The  first  wagon  train  which  entered  the  valley  in  the  following  spring 
was  a  noteworthy  little  caravan.  Leaving  Salt  Lake  in  April  they  found 
fresh  pasturage  along  the  banks  of  the  Humboldt  River,  and  their  cattle 
suffered  little,  though  the  heavy  canvas-topped  wagons  were  dragged 

'  David  J.  Staples,  Vice-President  of  the  Society  of  California  Pioneers.     San  Francisco. 
'Letter  to  New  York  Tribnne  from  Placerville,  Ca!.,  October  19,  1859. 


THE  DISCOVERT  OF  GOLD.  H 

slowly  over  an  untried  track,  as  the  beaten  trail  was  flooded  by  the 
swollen  river.^  The  party  were  nearly  all  Mormons,  led  by  Thomas  Orr, 
still  living  (1881),  a  hale,  clear-eyed  old  man,  at  Duncan's  Mills,  Sonoma 
County,  California.  They  were  an  orderly  if  somewhat  stolid  company, 
obeying  orders  without  questioning  why,  drawing  up  their  wagons  at 
nightfall  in  a  circle,  and  sleeping  under  the  eye  of  their  watchman  as 
composedly  as  sheep  about  their  shepherd.  At  the  sink  of  the  Humboldt, 
in  sight  of  the  snow-capped  Sierras,  the  wall  of  the  promised  land,  even 
this  cool-tempered,  well-fed  caravan  began  to  hasten  their  steps.  Some 
of  the  youngest  and  best  mounted  men  rode  forward  rapidly  to  make  the 
first  trial  of  the  mountain  passes,  and  the  main  body  followed  by  crossing 
the  40-Mile  desert  and  ascending  the  valley  of  the  Carson. 

On  the  15th  day  of  May  they  halted  for  a  few  hours,  at  noon,  beside 
a  little  creek  flowing  down  from  the  range  of  hills  which  bounded  the 
valley  on  the  east.  The  cattle  were  turned  loose  to  graze  among  the  sage 
brush,  and  the  women  of  the  party  prepared  the  simple  dinner  of  bacon 
and  potatoes.^  William  Prouse,  a  young  Mormon,  meanwhile  picked  up  a 
tin  milk-pan,  and  going  down  to  the  edge  of  the  creek  began  washing  the 
surface  dirt.  After  a  few  minutes  he  returned  and  showed  his  compan- 
ions a  few  glittering  specks  on  the  bottom  of  the  pan.''  The  specks  were 
gold  dust,  worth  intrinsically  only  a  few  cents,  thrown  carelessly  aside  a  few 
moments  later,*  but  they  were  then  transformed  into  precious  and  fruitful 
seed,  for  this  pinch  of  dust  was  positive  evidence  of  the  existence  of  gold 
in  the  deserts  of  Western  Utah,  and  that  starting  point  once  given,  the 
exploration  and  development  of  the  mineral  resources  of  the  land  were 
assured.'  The  visionary  prospector  would  willingly  turn  his  back  on  the 
known  riches  of  the  Californian  plains  to  wander  over  the  alkaline  sloughs 


'Thomaa  Orr,  John  Orr,  Duncan's  Mills,  Sonoma  County,  California;  Placer  Times  and  Transcript, 
June  29,  ISM. 

^  John  Orr,  Thomas  Orr. 

^ Diary  of  William  Prouse,  entry  on  May  15,  1859. 

<  William  Prouse,  living  (January,  18S1)  in  Kanosh  City,  Millard  County,  Utah. 

5  William  Prouse  declares  that  he  made  a  still  earlier  discovery  of  gold  dust  in  this  same  creek  bed,  in  the 
autumn  of  1848,  on  his  return  to  Salt  Lake  from  the  South  Fork  of  the  American  River.  He  lingered  behind  his 
party  in  order  to  prospect,  and  on  coming  up  with  the  train  again  told  its  members,  Joseph  Bates,  Frank  Weaver, 
and  Rufus  Stoddai-d,  that  he  would  "sliow  them  a  place,  if  they  ever  traveled  that  way  again,  where  they  could 
find  gold."— (Letter  of  William  Prouse,  December  14,  18S0.) 


12  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

and  dusty  plains  of  the  unknown  territory ;  the  wilderness  north,  east, 
south,  and  west  would  be  searched  with  greedy  eyes,  and  the  threads  of 
gold  would  be  traced  up  the  canon  water-courses  until  the  fountain-heads 
were  reached  and  the  hidden  treasures  of  the  mountains  were  brought  to 
light.  To  the  Mormon  pioneers,  however,  the  pinch  of  dust  had  no  such 
far-reaching  significance.  They  had  scarcely  heard  of  quartz  mining  and 
saw  nothing  attractive  in  the  brush-covered  hills  with  their  jutting  piles 
of  tawny  yellow  rock — the  bones  of  the  land,  as  a  fanciful  writer  declared,' 
showing  through  its  rags.  The  creek  sands  were  not  rich  compared  with 
the  Californian  plains  which  their  fancy  imaged,  and  they  were  impatient 
to  reach  the  El  Dorado  of  their  waking  dreams.  The  train  moved  on 
therefore,  up  the  valley  again,  until  they  met  the  advance  division  return- 
ing, who  had  left  them  at  the  sink  of  the  Humboldt.  The  Sierras  were 
reported  to  be  impassable,  and  the  united  party  accordingly  turned  back 
and  were  perforce  content  to  remain  three  weeks  longer  in  the  valley. 

John  Orr,  the  son  of  the  Mormon  leader,  and  several  others  returned 
to  Gold  Creek  or  Canon,  as  they  named  the  ravine  where  the  first  signs  of 
gold  were  found  by  Prouse,  and  resumed  prospecting.  Orr,  with  one 
companion,  Nicholas  Kelly,  worked  up  the  canon  rapidly  until,  on  the  first 
day  of  June,  they  reached  a  point  where  the  banks  of  the  rocky  ravine 
approached  so  near  each  other  that  a  narrow  passage  only  was  left. 
Through  this  cleft  the  water  of  the  creek  flowed  swiftly,  falling  over  the 
rocks  in  tiny  cascades.  In  a  crevice  at  the  edge  of  one  of  these  little  falls 
Orr  thrust  a  butcher's  knife  and  pried  off  a  loose  fragment  of  rock.  The 
running  water  soon  washed  out  the  underlying  dirt,  and  he  saw  a  small 
golden  nugget  which  the  rock  had  covered.  In  a  moment  he  held  in  his 
hand  the  first  piece  of  metalliferous  quartz  from  a  district  which  has 
yielded  the  great  bonanza  of  the  present  century.^  Other  bits  of  gold- 
bearing  quartz  and  gold  dust  as  well  were  afterward  obtained,  but  the 
prospectors  lacked  tools  and  provisions,  and,  bent  on  reaching  California, 
abandoned  the  canon  and  crossed  the  Sierras  as  soon  as  the  trail  was 
sufficiently  free  from  snow.  But  meanwhile  other  emigrants  had  entered 
the  valley,  and  the  new  placer  diggings  were  fairly  opened.^ 

'  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  18.  «  John  Orr.  ^  California  Daily  Courier,  July  8,  1850. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  GOLD.  13 

The  news  of  the  discovery  of  gold  spreads  from  prospector  to  pros- 
pector precisely  as  the  discovery  of  carrion  is  announced  by  the  flight  of 
vultures  and  crows.  A  horseman  riding  in  haste  toward  some  point  off 
the  beaten  route  is  an  intelligible  sign  and  loadstone.  So,  for  instance, 
two  boys,  Wand  and  Knous,  while  camping  in  the  valley  on  the  1st  day  of 
August,  saw  a  train  of  Mexicans  plodding  over  the  hills,  carrying  wooden 
bowls  {batia)  ,fAshioned  from  tree  trunks,  on  their  backs,  and  driving  small 
donkeys  loaded  with  provisions  and  miners'  equipments.  Following  on 
the  trail  of  this  party  the  boys  came  up  with  them  at  Gold  Canon  and 
found  them  prospecting  industriously.^  The  creek  was  a  mere  thread 
of  water,  but  the  Mexicans  knew  how  to  whirl  the  dry  placer  sand  in  their 
bowls  till  the  wind  blew  off  the  barren  dust  and  the  gold  specks  could  be 
scraped  with  horn  spoons  from  the  bottom  of  the  batia.  Don  Ignatio 
Parades  was  the  leader  of  the  expedition,  a  troop  of  peon  miners  whom 
he  had  brought  from  Alamos,  Sonora.  He  had  been  guided  to  the  canon 
by  two  native  Californian  prospectors  and  found  the  placer  dirt  fairly  rich 
in  gold.  The  peons  worked  contentedly  therefore  for  some  weeks,  when 
they  were  obliged  to  abandon  the  placer,  owing  to  the  high  price  of  sup- 
plies and  the  difficulties  of  transportation. 

The  overland  movement  during  this  year  (1850)  was  like  the  march 
of  an  army.  On  June  18,  39,000  emigrants  had  been  registered  at  Fort 
Laramie,  and  it  was  estimated  that  60,000  had  set  out  to  cross  the  plains 
by  the  northern  or  South  Pass  route  aloae.'  This  mighty  procession 
swept  off  every  green  thing  in  its  path  like  a  cloud  of  locusts,  and  by  the 
month  of  August  scarcely  a  blade  of  grass  was  to  be  seen  along  a  stretch 
of  200  miles,  from  Martin's  Fork  to  the  slough  of  the  Humboldt.  For 
nearly  the  whole  distance  the  route  had  become  a  continuous  marsh,  in 
which  cattle  were  miring  and  dying  by  the  hundreds.  Within  a  radius 
of  fifty  miles  from  Humboldt  Lake  the  country  was  literally  strewn  with 
carcases  and  the  terrible  effluvia  from  the  rotting  bodies  tainted  the  air  for 
miles  around.'*    The  price  of  flour  rose  in  Carson  Valley  to  $1.50  per  pound 


'Thomas  N.  Wand,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

^  Report  of  Capt.  William  Kindley,  commanding  Company  B,  U.  S.  Artillery,  under  Col.  J.  C.  Fremont, 
August  29,  1860,  to  Colonel  F.  Foreman,  Corresponding  Secretary  Relief  Committee. 
^California  Daily  Courier,  July  8,  1850. 


14  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

and  to  $2.50  at  the  sink  of  the  Humboldt.^  Rehef  parties  were  sent  out 
from  the  California  towns,  but  the  privations  of  the  emigrants  and  the 
little  mining  settlements  in  the  valley  became  extreme.  Work  was  sus- 
pended and  the  placer  deserted  until  the  following  year.^  Thus  the  con- 
tinuous existence  of  a  mining  camp  at  Gold  Canon  may  be  said  to  date 
from  the  summer  of  1851. 

'  Report  of  I.  Neely  Johnson,  in  charge  of  expedition  sent  by  Relief  Committee  from  Sacramento  to  Col. 
F.  Foreman  August  9,  1850. 

'  M.  W.  Dixon,  Harrisburgh,  Alameda  County,  California  ;  San  Francisco  Morning  Call,  February  8, 1880. 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  GOLD  CANON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY. 

The  organization  of  the  early  western  mining  communities  was  a 
simple  autonomy,  and  the  little  colony  scattered  along  the  line  of  this 
ravine  was  a  model  of  its  kind.  The  authority  of  the  national  government 
was  merely  a  name.  Until  September,  1850,  the  Gold  Creek  placer  was 
on  an  unorganized  portion  of  the  national  domain,  and  it  lay  beyond  the 
undescribed  circle  over  which  the  Mormon  governor  and  priest  ruled  as 
caliph,  though  nominally  within  the  limits  of  the  independent  State  of 
Deseret.  The  miners  acknowleged  no  magistrate  or  arbiter,  and  the  placer 
was  apportioned  according  to  a  rude  notion  of  equity,  or  prior  occupation, 
or  tacit  consent.  Additions  were  made  to  the  colony  from  time  to  time, 
and  parties  set  out  on  exploring  expeditions  to  the  headwaters  of  the 
Humboldt  River  and  Goose  Creek,^  to  the  Walker  River,  30  miles  east 
of  Carson  Valley,  and  to  the  Truckee  River,  40  miles  north.  Reports 
were  brought  back  of  rich  surface  diggings,  but  the  majority  of  the  miners 
preferred  to  remain  at  Gold  Canon.  The  gravel  was  worked  with  rockers 
and  long  toms,  and  yielded  from  $5  to  $10  per  day  to  the  man  on  the 
average,  nearly  200  being  at  work  during  the  autumn  of  1851. 

Attracted  by  the  opportunities  of  trading  with  the  overland  emigrants 
and  by  the  fertility  of  the  land  along  the  banks  of  the  Carson  River,  John  , 
Reese  and  other  Mormon  pioneers  took  up  little  farms  and  ranches  in 
the  valley  during  the  spring  of  1851,  and  found  a  ready  market  for  their 
crops  and  cattle.^  Their  relations  with  the  miners  were  at  first  friendly, 
although  they  had  some  cause  to  regard  the  placer  workers  as  a  camp 
of  Ishmaelites;  for  when  provisions  were  scanty,  in  the  winter  of  1852-3, 

'  Placer  Times  and  Transcript,  September  26,  1851. 

'Letter  to  San  Francisco  Morning  Call,  February  2,  1880,  from  E.  M.  Barniim,  Salt  Lake  City,  in  behalf 
of  Colonel  John  Reese. 

15 


16  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  ! 

1 

the  miners  held  a  httle  meeting  and  concluded  to  supply  their  wants  by 

the  inexpensive  method  of  a  foray.    Accordingly,  a  party  made  a  sally  from  .! 

their  camp  and  waylaid  two  trains  moving  from  Salt  Lake  to  Genoa,  a  little 

settlement  which  had  grown  up  since  May,  1851,  about  the  farm  of  John 

Reese.     The  bold  stand  taken  by  the  train  men  saved  their  bacon,  for  the 

assailants  did  not  expect  to  meet  with  armed  resistance  and  retired  inglo-  i 

riously.'  i 

The  natural  line  of  separation  between  the  peace-loving,  stolid  Mor-  :j 

mon  farmers  and  the  reckless,  bustling  placer  miners  was  drawn  more  \ 

deeply  by  such  acts  as  this.     Besides,  the  canon  workers  had  little  occa-  i 

sion  to  mingle  with  the  people  of  the  valley.     A  station  house  was  built    . 
at  the  foot  of  the  ravine  in  the  winter  of  1853-4,  where  provisions,  liquor,  \ 

clothes,  and  all  needed  supplies  could  be  obtained,  and  a  combined  store,  \ 

saloon,  and  bowling-alley  was  erected  shortly  afterwards  at  Maiden  Bar,  \ 

one  and  a  quarter  miles  farther  up  the  canon.^ 

In  the  autumn,  after  the  summer  heat  was  passed,  the  creek  swelled  ? 

even  before  any  snow  had  fallen  and  the  seepage  from  the  hills  increased.  j 

Then  miners  began  to  flock  to  the  placer  from  California  and  to  work  in 
the  bed  of  the  canon  and  the  neighboring  ravines.  As  the  water  sources 
grew  dry  in  May  or  June  the  placer  was  then  generally  abandoned,  and 
only  a  few  miners  remained  along  the  slender  line  of  the  creek.  Whether 
the  colony  was  large  or  small,  however,  miners  and  farmers  stood  aloof 
from  each  other,  though  without  any  positive  antipathy. 

By  act  of  Congress,  approved  September  9, 1850,  the  territory  of  Utah 
had  been  established,  but  the  Carson  Valley  settlers  had  been  left  without 
any  district  judge  or  magistrate  until  the  formation  of  the  county  of  Tooele, 
(March  2,  1852),^  embracing  a  tract  so  extensive  that  the  settlers  on  its 
western  border  found  the  county  organization  of  but  little  use.  The 
increasing  importance  of  the  valley  settlements  and  their  complaint  of  the 
lack  of  all  legally  constituted  authority  finally  induced  the  legislative 
assembly  of  Utah  to  pass  an  act,  approved  January  17,  1854,  organizing 

•  Democratic  State  Journal,  January  11, 1853.  Charles  Barnard,  Correspondent  El  Dorado  News,  Decem- 
ber 20,  1852. 

'  William  Naileigh,  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  prospector  at  Gold  Canon,  1853-1860. 
'Acts  and  resolutions,  Utah  Territory,  1852. 


THE  GOLD  CASON  PLACER  MINING-  COLONY.  17 

the  county  of  Carson  and  defining  its  boundaries,  north  by  Deseret  County, 
east  by  the  118th  parallel  of  latitude,  south  by  the  boundary  line  of  Utah 
Territory,  and-  west  by  California.^  By  the  same  act,^  the  territorial  gov- 
ernor, Brigham  Young,  was  "authorized  to  appoint  a  probate  judge  for  the 
county  when  he  shall  deem  it  expedient,  and  this  judge,  upon  his  appoint- 
ment, shall  proceed  to  organize  the  county  by  dividing  it  into  precincts 
and  causing  elections  to  be  held  by  law  to  fill  the  various  county  and 
precinct  offices."  Orson  Hyde,  a  prominent  Mormon  elder,  was  accordingly 
assigned  to  the  charge  of  the  county  as  probate  judge,  and  set  out  with  a 
small  escort  from  Salt  Lake  (May  17,  1855)  for  the  valley  of  the  Carson.' 

By  act  of  the  Utah  assembly,  approved  February  4, 1852,*  the  probate 
judge,  besides  discharging  the  ordinary  functions  of  his  office,  was  empow- 
ered to  exercise  original  jurisdiction  in  both  civil  and  criminal  cases.  He 
was  also  constituted  chairman  of  the  county  commissioners,^  and  was 
intrusted  with  the  arduous  duty  of  conservator  of  the  peace  throughout 
the  county.''  There  was  a  provision  for  an  appeal,  under  bonds,  from  his 
decisions  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  territory,'  but  practically  Hyde,  as 
probate  judge,  was  the  ruling  magistrate  of  the  district,  though  the  miners 
showed  no  regard  tor  his  commission.  But  in  the  valley  his  arrivaP  was 
heartily  welcomed. 

The  life  of  the  simple  people  whom  he  there  governed  was  not  unlike 
that  of  the  peasants  of  Acadie.  They  labored  only  to  supply  their  humble 
wants.  Even  tempered  as  their  draught  oxen,  and  matching  them  also  in 
slowness  of  thought  and  of  action,  they  built  their  rude  cabins  of  logs 
thatched  with  shakes,  tilled  their  fields  along  the  river  banks,  gathered 
their  little  crops,  and  troubled  their  minds  about  nothing  except  seed  time 
and  harvest.  They  looked  up  to  Hyde  as  their  spiritual  as  well  as  tem- 
poral director  and  received  with  unquestioning  faith  his  inspired  teaching. 
The  harvest  of  1855  was  a  meagre  one,  but  the  chosen  people  of  Carson 
were  fed  by  miraculous  bounty.     Hyde  described  this  special  providence 

'  Acts  and  Resolutions,  Utah  Territory,  1854.     Section  1.  ^  Section  2. 

2  Mormon  Church  Records;  Orson  Pratt,  sen..  Historian  of  the  Church,  September  17,  1880. 
*  Acts  and  Resolutions  Utah  Territory,  1852,  sections  27,  29. 

6  Section  34.  «  Section  43.  '  Section  30.  «  jung  X5,  1855. 

(2  H  C) 


18  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

in  a  letter  to  the  Placer  American,^  announcing  that  "honey  dew  had  fallen 
so  bountifully  on  the  small  cottonwood  along  the  river  banks  that  the  cit- 
izens were  washing  the  leaves  and  boiling  the  syrup  into  sugar,"  and 
interpreted  the  prodigy  by  adding:  "The  people  depended  on  their  wheat 
to  get  groceries,  but  when  the  wheat  failed,  sugar  fell  from  heaven."  A 
Gentile  physician  and  naturalist,  who  noted  the  same  phenomenon,  wrote 
to  the  Sacramento  Union  that  this  blessed  manna  was  the  "product  of 
secerning  tubules  opening  on  the  posterior  part  of  the  insect  termed 
aphides  or  plant  lice,  of  the  family  Hemipterse."  The  miners  laughed  at 
the  sugar  from  heaven,  but  the  pious  faith  of  the  Utah  peasants  remained 
unshaken.^ 

Their  peaceful  life  was  disturbed  somewhat  by  the  entry  of  a  rough 
unruly  set  of  ranchmen  into  Washoe  Valley  and  upon  lands  lying  along 
the  Truckee  River,  who  disputed  the  possession  of  the  grazing  pastures 
with  the  Mormons  and  the  cattle-owning  Indians;  but  the  early  settlers 
held  their  ground,  in  most  instances,  until  they  were  commanded  to  gather 
up  all  their  movable  possessions,  abandon  their  homes,  and  repair  to  Salt 
Lake  City  by  a  ukase  of  Brigham  Young — issued  when  the  safety  of  his 
church  and  people  were  menaced,  as  he  averred,  by  the  presence  of  the 
little  army  of  United  States  troops  under  General  Albert  Sidney  Johnson. 
The  message  reached  the  valley  by  express  at  nightfall,  September  5, 
1857.  There  was  no  thought  of  disregarding  the  summons  or  of  question- 
ing its  necessity.  At  the  bidding  of  their  leader  they  would  have  entered 
the  jaws  of  death  with  dull  obedience,  a  temper  midway  between  the  un- 
reasoning docility  of  sheep  and  the  masterful  sense  of  duty  which  drew  on 
the  Six  Hundred  at  Balaclava.  Accordingly,  on  the  26th  of  September, 
1857,  the  Mormons  of  the  valley,  about  450  men,  women,  and  children, 
all  told,  abandoned  their  farms  and  formed  in  a  well-ordered  procession, 
marshaled  by  captains  of  tens  and  hundreds,  driving  their  cattle  before 
them  and  carrying  their  household  goods  to  the  city  across  the  desert.' 

'  Sacramento  Union,  October  29,  1855. 

^  The  party  of  Bartleston,  fifteen  years  before,  had  eaten  of  this  same  tnainia,  which  the  Indians  were 
accustomed  to  scrape  from  the  weeds  and  grass  and  mold  into  balls,  crushing  the  living  insects  in  their  own 
gluten. — (A  Journey  to  California,  p.  16,  and  manuscript  supplement.) 

'Mormon  Church  Records:  Orson  Pratt,  sen.,  September  17,  1880. 


THE  GOLD  CANON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  19 

« 

The  Probate  Judge,  Orson  Hyde,  had  gone  to  Salt  Lake  in  the  autumn 
preceding,  leaving  Carson  Valley  November  6,  1856.  Shortly  after  his 
arrival  at  Salt  Lake  City,  December  9,  1856,  Carson  County  was  attached 
to  Great  Salt  Lake  County  for  election,  revenue,  and  judicial  purposes, 
by  act  of  the  territorial  legistature,  approved  January  14,  1857,  and  the 
probate  and  county  court  records  were  delivered  over  to  the  order  of  the 
probate  court  of  Great  Salt  Lake  County.^ 

The  determining  cause  of  this  action  is  said  by  the  authorized  spokes- 
man of  the  church  to  have  been  the  disturbed  condition  of  Western  Utah 
at  the  time;^  but,  perhaps,  a  more  sufficient  reason  may  be  found  in  the 
distance  of  the  Carson  settlement  from  the  Mormon  metropolis,  the 
expenses  of  maintaining  a  separate  county  organization,  and  the  unwill- 
ingness of  the  judge  assigned  to  the  district  to  cross  a  desert  to  hold  his 
court. 

The  miners  at  Gold  Canon  knew  of  the  departure  of  the  Mormon 
settlers  and  the  loss  of  their  judicial  privileges,  but  regretted  neither. 
They  had  never  mingled  sociably  with  the  Mormons  of  the  valley,  and 
only  a  few  of  the  departing  settlers  had  attempted  to  join  them  in  mining 
on  the  cafion.^  No  cases  were  submitted  to  Judge  Styles,  and  when 
application  was  once  made  to  Orson  Hyde  to  adjust  a  dispute  he  sensibly 
remarked  that  he  "  didn't  propose  to  mix  himself  up  with  any  Gentile 
messes."*  The  miners,  left  to  their  own  devices,  contrived  to  live  together 
amicably  as  a  rule.  Disputes  were  settled  informally  by  reference  to 
associates  and  friends,  or  each  contestant  named  an  arbitrator,  and  the 
two  referees  so  chosen  selected  a  few  associates  to  sit  with  them  in  judg- 
ment upon  the  case. 

Few  occupations  are  more  monotonous  and  colorless  than  the  work 
of  a  scattered  colony  of  placer  miners  along  the  line  of  a  creek.  The 
Gold  Canon  miners  toiled  in  the  usual  way  with  long  toms  and  rockers, 
washing  the  sand  from  the  various  bars,  and  when  the  richest  placers 
were  exhausted,  carrying  sacks  and  buckets  of  earth  from  the  neighboring 


'  Sacramento  Union,  September  28,  1857,  October  5,  1857. 
'Mormon  Church  Records;  Orson  Pratt,  sen.,  September  17,  1880. 
'Mormon  Church  Records:  Orson  Pratt,  sen,,  Historian. 
<Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenrieder,  Virginia  City,  Nev. 


20  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

ravines  to  the  nearest  spring  or  to  the  creek  itself.  At  nightfall  they 
would  return  to  their  huts,  cook  their  simple  suppers  of  bacon  and  pota- 
toes, with  bread  and  tea,  smoke  a  pipe  or  two,  and  then  wrap  themselves 
up  in  their  blankets  to  sleep  until  daybreak.  In  summer  most  of  the 
huts  were  merely  heaps  of  brush,  rather  inferior  to  the  Pah-Ute  lodges. 
The  winter  cabins  were  usually  of  rough  stones,  plastered  with  mud  and 
covered  with  canvas,  boards,  or  sticks,  overlaid  with  earth.  Sometimes 
holes  were  made  in  the  walls  for  ventilation,  but  generally  the  cracks  and 
open  doorways  were  sufficient.  Glass  windows  were  an  unthought-of 
luxury.  Some  of  the  better  cabins  had  small  iron  stoves  and  funnels,  but 
the  majority  of  the  miners  were  content  with  stone  fire-places  and  rude 
cranes.  A  nondescript  ball  was  sometimes  given  at  one  of  the  stations, 
but  few  of  the  miners  succeeded  in  varying  the  staple  amusements  of 
gambling  and  drinking.  On  Sundays  the  men  "rested"  usually  —  that 
is,  "  washed  their  clothes  and  cleaned  up  their  cabins."^ 

Some  of  the  miners  were  fairly  expert  hunters,  and  used  to  supply 
their  friends  at  times  with  a  steak  of  antelope  or  mountain  sheep,  which 
they  shot  among  the  neighboring  hills.  The  ravines  of  the  range  were 
then  (1851-57)  covered  with  a  thick  growth  of  small  cedars,  pines,  and 
underbrush,  which  afforded  a  good  covert  for  deer  and  hares,  game  which 
was  quite  abundant  until  the  Indians  and  the  miners  thinned  their  numbers. 
Except  when  a  supply  of  fresh  meat  was  thus  obtained  the  miners,  as  a 
rule,  contented  themselves  with  bacon  or  salt  beef,  which  they  purchased 
at  the  stations.^  Occasionally  a  ranchman  from  the  valleys  would  drive 
a  cow  or  calf  up  the  canon,  slaughter  the  animal  at  some  convenient 
point  and  sell  portions  as  required,  or  roast  the  whole  by  a  barbecue.* 
Potatoes,  almost  the  sole  vegetable  in  demand,  were  also  purchased  from 
the  farmers  or  ranchmen  in  the  valleys.  All  other  supplies  were  bought 
at  the  station  stores. 

Generally,  a  sufficient  vari  ' ,  was  kept  in  stock,  and  the  prices  were 

•  Richard  M.  Bucke,  Superintendent  Asylum  for  the  Insane,  London,  Canada,  engaged  in  mining  at  Gold 
Canon,  1857.    Letter  dated  October  22,  1880. 

2  William  Naileigh,  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  prospector  in  Gold  Caaon,  1853-59. 
'  Sacramento  Union,  November  8,  1854. 


THE  GOLD  CAlfON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  21 

not  exorbitant  considering  the  extraordinay  cost  of  transportation  across 
the  Sierras  or  over  the  plains.  Until  grist-mills  were  built  in  Carson 
Valley  in  1854/  flour  was  purchased  from  the  emigrant  trains  at  prices 
ranging  from  4  cents  to  $2.50^  per  pound,  in  proportion  to  the  scarcity  and 
demand.  After  the  valley  farmers  began  to  grind  their  own  wheat  and 
the  failure  of  supplies  was  no  longer  dreaded,  the  market  price  of  flour 
was  usually  15  cents  per  pound,^  and  potatoes  which  in  early  years 
(1850-53)  sold  for  |1  per  pound  fell  to  5  cents  per  pound.  When  crops 
grown  in  the  valley  were  offered  for  sale  in  1854,  barley  was  sold  at  44 
cents  per  pound ;  beef,  at  from  12  to  18  cents;  coffee  and  sugar,  for  50  cents 
per  pound.*  But  it  sometimes  happened  that  supplies  of  certain  necessary 
articles  were  exhausted  when  the  stock  could  not  be  renewed,  as  in  the 
winter  of  1856-57,  when  many  miners  were  without  boots  or  had  none 
fit  to  be  worn.^  The  only  means  of  obtaining  a  supply  was  through  the 
expressman,  John  A.  Thompson,  who  alone  ventured  to  cross  the  Sierras 
in  the  heart  of  winter.  He  offered  |1.50  per  pound  to  any  man  who  would 
accompany  him  back  from  Placerville  and  carry  freight  to  Gold  Canon, 
but  could  find  no  one  willing  to  face  the  perils  of  the  passage,  and  few 
indeed  could  have  made  the  attempt  with  success  except  men  like  this 
stalwart  Norwegian,  trained  to  endure  extremes  of  cold  and  fatigue,  and 
skimming  fearlessly  over  snow -filled  crevasses  on  his  wooden  shoes. 
In  crossing  from  the  valley  he  met  four  tired  men  25  miles  from  Placer- 
ville, who  had  advanced  only  10  miles  in  three  days  and  had  not  as  yet 
fairly  entered  the  snow  belt.  As  the  light-footed  courier  slid  past,  they 
asked  him  despondingly  whether  they  were  almost  through  the  snow. 
"There  are  45  miles  more  of  it,"  he  cried  back,  without  slackening  pace.® 
Remembering  the  wearisome  and  terrible  passages  of  Walker,  Bidwell, 
Fremont,  the  Donners,  the  Raymond  brothers,  and  others  who  risked 
their  lives  in  the  sierran  snows,  the  frequent  and  fearless  trips  of  Thomp- 
son seem  marvelous  at  first  thought;   but  these  parties  were  generally 

'  Placer  Times  and  Trauscript,  May  18,  1852.     Democratic  State  Journal,  January  6,  1853. 

'  Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenrieder. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  December  10,  1856. 

*  Democratic  State  Journal,  May  6,  1854. 

^Sacramento  Union,  March  9,  1857. 

•i  Sacramento  Union,  March  9,  1857. 


22  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

unfamiliar  with  the  route  to  be  traversed,  or  worse  still,  were  heavily  handi- 
capped with  baggage  or  feeble  companions ;  while  the  blond  Norwegian,  a 
model  of  manly  vigor,  could  run  across  the  Sierras,  scarcely  pausing  for 
breath.  He  carried  neither  blankets  nor  overcoat — not  even  provisions, 
except  a  small  parcel  of  dried  beef  and  crackers  in  the  bosom  of  his  flannel 
shirt,  which  he  eat  as  he  ran.  For  drink  he  had  a  handful  of  snow  caught 
up  as  he  skimmed  along,  or  the  water  of  some  mountain  spring.  At  night 
he  made  his  bed  of  pine  boughs  and  slept  on  the  snow  field.^  Only  the 
fiercest  storms  could  bar  his  passage.  He  ran  from  Carson  Valley  to 
Placerville,  a  distance  of  100  miles,  in  three  days,  and  returned  in  two, 
bearing  a  heavy  load^  of  mail  and  baggage  over  the  pass.^  During  the 
winter  months  this  mountain  Mercury  was  almost  the  sole  medium  of 
communication  between  the  miners  in  their  inaccessible  cafion  and  the 
rest  of  the  world. 

Their  wants,  it  is  true,  were  simple.  They  cared  only  to  fill  their  can- 
vas bags  with  gold  dust  as  quickly  as  possible  and  migrate  to  a  pleasanter 
country.  They  required  no  courts,  churches,  alms-houses,  prisons,  nor 
any  other  of  the  institutions  of  civilization.  Once,  it  may  be  noted,  they 
were  somewhat  at  a  loss  for  a  clergyman,  but  the  lack  was  supplied  by  the 
wit  of  a  woman.  William  Dover,  a  miner  on  the  canon,  met  by  chance 
Rachel  Albright,  a  young  woman  crossing  the  plains  with  an  emigrant 
train  in  1854,  and  wished  to  make  her  his  wife.  She  consented,  and  only 
one  obstacle  barred  their  union.  There  was  no  clergyman  or  civil  magis- 
trate in  the  valley  and  the  young  woman  was  not  willing  to  waive  the 
marriage  ceremony  for  the  time  being,  as  was  suggested.  It  appeared 
probable  that  the  lovers  would  be  parted,  perhaps  forever,  as  the  emigrant 
train  would  soon  cross  the  Sierras,  and  Dover  was  not  disposed  to  abandon 
his  productive  claim  on  the  canon  for  a  less  certain  prize.  In  this  strait 
Mrs.  James  B.  Ellis,  the  wife  of  a  pioneer  miner,  undertook  to  unite  the 
pair  by  a  civil  contract  sufficiently  formal  to  satisfy  the  scruples  of  the 
bride.     Rachel  Albright  accepted  the  offer  and  received  a  certificate  of 

'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  13,  1876. 

'Load  weighing  often  more  than  100  pounds.     (Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  13,  1S76.) 
3  Sacramento  Union,  December  10,  1656.   "Thompson's  first  trip  from  Carson  Valley  to  Placerville  was 
made  in  four  days." 


THE  GOLD  OA^ON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  23 

marriage  from  Mrs.  Ellis;  a  duplicate  contract  was  given  to  the  bride's 
brother,  and  Mrs.  Ellis  reserved  a  copy  herself.^  The  legality  of  the  mar- 
riage rite  was  never  questioned  by  the  bridegroom  or  bride,  though  their 
union  was  ended  by  a  divorce  a  few  years  later. 

The  miners  could  not  attribute,  therefore,  the  decadence  of  their 
colony  on  the  canon  to  the  presence  of  a  clergyman  or  the  erection  of  a 
church,  which  prospectors  commonly  regard  as  a  bad  omen.  Yet  it  was 
becoming  evident,  in  1857,  that  unless  new  discoveries  were  made  the 
canon  would  soon  be  abandoned.  Maiden  Bar,  Greenhorn  Point,  and- 
other  rich  local  placers  had  been  "cleaned  up  to  bed  rock"  several  times 
and  the  average  yield  since  1855  was  yearly  decreasing.  Exactly  how 
much  gold  had  been  obtained  cannot  be  learned,  but  an  approximate 
estimate  can  be  made,  based  on  the  testimony  of  a  trustworthy  prospector 
who  mined  on  the  canon  from  1853  to  1859,  confirmed  by  a  collection  of 
reports  from  the  Sacramento  Union  and  other  California  newspapers.^ 

When  James  B.  Ellis  reached  the  canon  in  the  summer  of  1853  he 
took  up  a  claim  100  feet  long  near  the  entrance  of  the  ravine,  which  he 
worked  from  the  fall  of  1853  till  June,  1854,  employing  two  assistants 
and  using  a  "long  torn."  The  claim  yielded  an  average  return  to  each 
man  of  from  $12  to  $20  per  day.  Seven  working  months  from  November 
1, 1853,  to  June  1, 1854,  of  twenty-six  days  each  — 182  days  X  3  (number  of 
miners)  X  $16,  average  daily  earnings  =  $8,736.  But  this  claim  was  a 
new  and  uncommonly  productive  one,  whose  yield  is  merely  cited  as  an 
example  of  the  best  class  on  the  canon. 

The  average  earnings  of  the  miners  were  only  from  $4  to  $5  per  day 
individually,  and  the  following  table  is  prepared  with  due  allowance  for 
the  shifting  numbers  of  the  colony  and  the  inferior  yield  of  the  poorer 
placers:^ 

'  Mrs.  James  B.  Ellis,  now  (1881 )  Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenrieder,  Virgina  City,  Nevada. — Virginia  City  Territorial 
Enterprise,  June  13,  1875. 

^  William  Naileigh,  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  1880. 

'Placer  Times  and  Transcript,  September  26,  1851 ;  Uemoeratic  State  Journal,  May  18,  1852;  Placerville 
Correspondent  Democratic  State  Journal,  January  6,  1853;  Placer  Times  and  Transcript,  April  7,  1853;  Sacra- 
mento Union,  November  18,  1854;  Sacramento  Union,  February  4,  1856;  Report  of  John  A.  Thompson,  Sacra- 
mento Union,  April  21,  1857;  Report  of  John  A.  Thompson,  Sacramento  Union,  May  20,  1857;  Report  of 
John  A.  Thompson,  Sacramento  Union,  January  9,  1858;  Sacramento  Union,  March  13,  1858,  Report  of  John 
A.  Thompson. 


24 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

TABLE  OF  BULLION  PRODUCT.— GOLD  CaSON. 


Year. 

Number  of  work- 
ing days. 

Number  of  miners. 

Daily  earnings. 

Total  yield. 

1850     

|6, 000. 

1851 

100 

S  120 
^220 

<120 
^220 

<  120 
^220 

5140 
^220 

5  120 
J220 

(    70 
^140 

120 

130 
20 

90 
20 

130 
20 

180 
20 

100 
25 

80 
25 

15 

5 

5 

5 
5 

5 
5 

4 

4 

4 
4 

2 
2 

60, 000. 

1852 

i;OooSioo,ooo. 

54, 000  ?   -„  „„„ 
22,000  5  '^^'"""• 

oo'nnn    100,000. 

1853 

1854 

1855 

100,800  ?„„  .„„ 

§000570,000. 

11;  200  j   18,200. 

1856        

1857 

The  notable  falling  off  in  the  returns  during  the  last  year  was  due 
not  only  to  the  fast  approaching  exhaustion  of  the  placers,  but  to  the 
scanty  supply  of  water,  for  during  this  season  very  little  snow  fell. 

The  great  body  of  miners  had  contented  themselves  with  the  small 
but  certain  returns  from  the  bed  of  the  canon  and  the  creek  delta  at  its 
lower  end,  but  there  was  one  noteworthy  exception  to  this  general  prac- 
tice.^ Two  young  Americans,  Ethan  Allen  and  Hosea  Ballon  Grosh,  made 
a  persistent  and  well-planned  effort  to  trace  the  metal-bearing  ledges  of 
the  district.  The  story  of  their  work  is  a  memorable  scene  in  the  drama 
of  mining  industry.  Never  was  the  strange  allotment  of  the  favors  of 
fortune  more  vividly  set  forth  than  in  their  fate  as  contrasted  with  the 
blundering  luck  of  the  ignorant  prospectors  who  followed  in  their  foot- 
steps. They  were  brothers,  sons  of  a  Universalist  clergyman,  living  in 
1849  in  Reading,  Pa.  Allen  Grosh,  the  elder  of  the  two,  was  born  in  1824 
(November  11th),  and  his  brother  in  1826  (August  3d),  at  Marietta,  Pa. 
The  news  of  the  discovery  of  gold  in  California  stirred  their  minds  with 
the  same  impulse  which  was  given  to  thousands  like  them,  and  they 
joined  a  party  which  set  out  for  the  Pacific  coast,  saihngfrom  Philadelphia 

'  The  peon  miners  had  prospected  on  the  neighboring  hills  in  1850  and  found  abundant  traces  of  silver, 
but  owing  to  the  lack  of  supplies,  as  has  been  narrated,  and  their  expressed  conviction  that  "a  gold  mine  is 
needed  to  work  a  silver  one,"  they  made  no  attempt  to  utilize  their  discoveries. — (Thomas  N.  Wand,  San  Fran- 
cisco, Cal.) 


THE  GOLD  CAS^ON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  25 

on  the  28tli  of  February,  1849,  for  Tampico,  Mexico.  A  storm  which 
struck  their  vessel  before  reaching  port,  driving  it  back  on  its  course,  and 
a  bolt  of  lightning  which  shivered  a  mast,  might  have  seemed  an  ominous 
outset  to  their  expedition,'  but  the  spirits  of  the  two  young  men  were 
too  buoyant  and  self-reliant  to  be  weighed  down  by  presages  of  evil. 
Reaching  Tampico  at  length,  on  the  26th  of  March,  they  crossed  overland 
to  San  Blas,^  enduring  with  invincible  good  humor  and  patience  the  bitter 
discomforts  of  the  overland  journey,  scarcity  of  water,  a  burning  sun, 
"a  barren  country  with  few  trees  and  these  almost  leafless,  stampedes 
and  straying  of  mules  and  horses,  poor  provisions,  insults  of  all  kinds 
day  and  night,  bad  roads  and  in  places  no  roads,  and  attacks  of  malarious 
fever  and  dysentery."^ 

The  contractor  who  had  undertaken  to  provide  their  transportation 
to  California,  and  had  been  paid  in  advance,  declared  his  inability  to  ful- 
fill his  agreement  while  the  company  were  still  80  miles  from  the  west 
Mexican  coast,  but  nevertheless,  the  party  struggled  on,  reaching  San  Bias 
upon  the  23d  of  June.  Like  most  of  their  companions,  the  Grosh  brothers 
had  not  thought  it  necessary  to  bring  a  surplus  to  a  land  of  gold  after 
prepaying  their  passage,  and  were  left  behind  accordingly  by  the  steam- 
ship which  touched  at  San  Bias  on  its  way  up  the  coast  shortly  after  their 
arrival.  Nothing  discouraged,  they  contrived  to  obtain  a  steerage  passage 
on  the  bark  Olga,  which  sailed  from  San  Bias  on  the  12th  of  July,  by 
selling  their  share  of  the  mules  and  horses,  taken  by  the  concession  of  the 
defaulting  contractor,  and  pawning  the  wagons  and  harness  as  security 
for  the  balance  of  the  passage-money.  On  the  30th  of  August  the  barque 
entered  San  Francisco  Bay,  but  Hosea  Grosh  was  still  so  ill  with  dysentery 
and  malarial  fever,  contracted  on  the  passage  through  Mexico,  that  it  was 
several  weeks  before  he  was  able  to  do  any  work.  During  his  sickness 
his  brother  cared  for  him  most  tenderly  and  patiently,  although  he  had 
chafed,  naturally,  at  the  extraordinary  delays  of  the  journey  and  longed 
to  set  off  with  the  parties  departing  daily  for  the  gold-fields.    When  Hosea 

'  Alpheus  Bull,  Vice-President  Fireman's  Fund  Insurance  Company,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
'Richard  M.   Buclce,  Superintendent  Asylum  for  the  Insane,   London,   Ontario,  Canada. — Manuscript 
Letters  and  Journals  of  the  Grosh  Brothers. 
2  Richard  M.  Buoke. 


26  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

regained  his  health  it  was  necessary  to  provide  an  outfit,  and  the  brothers 
were  not  able  to  begin  work  as  prospectors  until  the  summer  of  the  year 
following  (1850),  in  El  Dorado  County,  California. 

Their  chances  of  success,  based  on  personal  fitness  for  their  under- 
taking, were  unusually  fair.  Others  were  young,  strong,  and  hardy,  like 
them,  but  few  of  their  fellow  workers  were  so  observant,  industrious,  and 
temperate.  They  had  studied  and  reflected  more  than  most  men  of  their 
age,  and  knew  something  at  least  of  elementary  chemistry  and  mineral- 
ogy.^ Always  cheerful,  hopeful  amid  all  discouragements,  honorable  in 
small  things  as  in  great,  they  gained  the  respect  of  all  their  companions, 
though  they  were  somewhat  reserved  in  disposition  and  confided  in  few 
intimate  friends.  The  miner  who  knew  them  best  has  written  of  them 
that  they  were  "in  truth  religious,  not  apt  to  talk  about  it,  not  wedded  to 
any  special  dogma,  but  filled  with  that  genuine  religion  of  the  heart  which 
is  the  salt  of  the  earth,  and  which  keeps  whoever  possesses  it,  as  it  kept 
them,  fearless,  earnest,  and  pure.'"  "- 

Their  first  season  at  the  mines  was  moderately  profitable.  They  saved 
$2,000  above  their  expenses,  but  afterwards  spent  all  their  savings  to  no 
purpose  in  diverting  the  current  of  a  river  from  its  bed  in  order  to  wash 
the  sands  of  its  old  channel.  In  1853,  after  two  years  of  generally  unre- 
munerative  work,  they  crossed  the  Sierra  Nevadas  for  the  first  time,^  and 
joined  the  parties  of  miners  at  work  along  the  line  of  Gold  Canon.  Here 
they  made  only  a  bare  living  until  the  autumn  of  1854,  when  they  returned 
to  California  in  order  to  prospect  for  gold-bearing  quartz-veins  at  Little 
Sugar  Loaf,  in  El  Dorado  County. 

Their  bad  luck  continued.  On  the  31st  of  March,  1856,  they  wrote 
to  their  father:  "Ever  since  our  return  from  Utah  we  have  been  trying 
to  get  a  couple  of  hundred  dollars  together  for  the  purpose  of  making  a 
careful  examination  of  a  silver  lead  in  Gold  Canon.  *  *  *  Native 
silver  is  found  in  Gold  Canon;  it  resembles  thin  sheet-lead  broken  very 
fine,  and  lead  the  miners  suppose  it  to  be.        *       *       *       We  found 

'  Alpheus  Bull,  San  Francisco,  California.        " 

'  Richard  Bucke,  Loudon,  Ontario,  Canada. 

^Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenrieder,  Virginia  City,  Nevada  — Letters  of  Allen  and  Hosea  Grosh. 


THE  GOLD  CANON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  27 

silver  ore  at  the  forks  of  the  canon.     A  large  quartz  vein  shows  itself  in 
this  situation."' 

They  went  to  Utah  for  the  second  time  in  September,  1856,  staying 
at  Gold  Canon  until  the  end  of  October.  In  a  letter  dated  November  3, 
1856,  they  wrote:  "We  found  two  veins  of  silver  at  the  forks  of  Gold 
Gallon.  *  *  «:  Q^g  Qf  i^hese  veins  is  a  perfect  monster."  And 
again,  November  22:  "We  have  hopes  almost  amounting  to  certainty  of 
veins  crossing  the  canon  at  two  other  points." 

Returning  from  El  Dorado  County,  where  they  had  passed  the  winter 
of  1856-'57  in  prospecting  for  quartz  lodes  without  success,  they  revisited 
Gold  Canon  in  the  spring  of  1857.  On  the  8th  of  June,  1857,  Allen  wrote: 
"We  struck  the  vein  (in  Gold  Canon)  without  difficulty,  but  find  some  in 
tracing  it.  We  have  followed  two  shoots  down  the  hill,  have  a  third 
traced  positively,  and  feel  pretty  sure  that  there  is  a  fourth.  The  two 
shoots  we  have  traced  give  strong  evidence  of  big  surface  veins.  The 
following  is  a  diagram  of  the  set  of  veinsr 

E  A  "-^  seems  to  be  the  center  from  which  all  seem 

to  radiate;   B  we  have  traced  by  boulders;   C  we 
\  have  struck  the  end  of;   D  the  same;   E  is  uncer- 

\  tain,  though  the  evidence  of  its  existence  is  toler- 
^  ably  strong;  BAG  may  be  the  true  vein  and  the 
shoots;  D  A  E  may  be  superficial  spurs.  We  have 
pounded  up  some  of  each  variety  of  rock  and  set  it  to  work  by  the  Mexi- 
can process.  *  *  *  'j'j^g  j.q(,]j  Qf  ^j^g  ygj,^  looks  beautiful,  is  very 
soft,  and  will  work  remarkably  easy.  The  show  of  metallic  silver  pro- 
duced by  exploding  it  in  damp  gunpowder  is  very  promising.  This  is  the 
only  test  that  we  have  yet  applied.  The  rock  is  iron,  and  its  colors  are 
violet-blue,  indigo-blue,  blue-black,  and  greenish-black.  It  differs  very 
much  from  that  in  the  Frank  vein,  the  vein  we  discovered  last  fall.  The 
Frank  vein  will  require  considerable  capital  to  start.  The  rock  is  very 
hard  and  the  vein  very  much  split  up.  The  present  vein  lies  very  compact 
as  far  as  we  have  examined  it;  not  a  leaf  of  foreign  rock  in  it." 

August  16,  1857,  Allen  wrote  again  from  Gold  Canon:  "Our  first 
assay  was  one-half  ounce  of  rock;    the  result  was  |3,500  of  silver  to  the 


28  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

ton,  by  hurried  assay,  which  was  altogether  too  much  of  a  good  thing. 
*  *  *  We  assayed  a  small  quantity  of  rock  by  cupellation  from 
another  vein.  The  result  was  |200  per  ton.  We  have  several  other 
veins  which  are  as  yet  untouched.  We  are  very  sanguine  of  ultimate 
success." 

During  the  summer  of  1857,  as  during  the  previous  years,  the 
brothers  supported  themselves  by  washing  the  canon  sands  for  gold 
while  prospecting  industriously  for  veins  of  silver  ore.  They  made  no 
attempt  to  develop  any  of  their  discoveries,  except  by  examining  the 
intervals  between  jutting  boulders  in  order  to  trace  the  lines  of  surface 
croppings,  for  they  had  no  money  and  knew  that  it  was  impossible  to  open 
a  vein  properly  without  capital.  Their  claims  were  fairly  productive,  but 
several  hundred  yards  distant  from  the  canon  creek,  so  that  they  were 
obliged  to  transport  the  dirt  in  sacks  to  the  water,  and  this  labor  consumed 
so  much  working  time,  which  they  were  anxious  to  devote  to  their  search 
for  silver,  that  they  washed  only  enough  sand  to  pay  for  their  food. 

Placer  washing  was  merely  a  needful  drudgery.  The  search  for 
hidden  veins  of  ore  has  an  indescribable  fascination,  which  beguiles  and 
holds  fast  the  most  stolid  of  men.  The  Grosh  brothers,  ardent  and 
ambitious,  grudged  themselves  the  necessary  food  and  rest,  and  would 
fain  have  spent  every  moment  in  rock  chipping  and  assaying.  Their 
brightening  prospects  of  success  goaded  them  to  impossible  exertions ;  for 
as  soon  as  they  should  succeed  in  determining  the  existence  and  course 
of  a  rich  ore-bearing  ledge,  they  were  promised  the  money  requisite  to 
develop  it  by  George  Brown,  a  cattle-trader  of  Carson  Valley. 

The  "black  rock,"  which  assayed  $3,500  to  the  ton,  "presented  so 
many  difficulties,"  wrote  Allen,  September  11,  1857,  "  that  we  lost  our 
patience,  and,  relying  on  Brown,  we  dropped  everything,  determined  to 
master  it.  The  very  day  we  had  determined  it  we  heard  the  first  news 
of  his  murder."  Fortune  had  again  disappointed  them,  but  the  brothers 
did  not  lose  heart.  Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenrieder,  who  had  faith  in  the  men  and 
their  work,  promised  to  assist  them  with  money  which  she  had  saved,  and 
they  planned  also  to  secure  the  help  of  some  enterprising  capitalist  in 
California.     Whether  they  would  have  succeeded  in  this  endeavor,  and 


THE  GOLD  CAKON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  29 

whether  their  seven  years  of  persistent  toil  would  have  been  crowned  with 
reward,  can  never  be  known. 

On  the  19th  of  August,  three  days  after  Allen  Grosh's  hopeful  letter 
was  written,  Hosea  struck  a  pick  accidentally  into  his  foot  just  below  the 
ankle,  making  a  deep  and  painful  wound.  There  was  no  physician  in  the 
cailon  camps,  and  it  was  with  difficulty  that  a  few  simple  lotions  were 
obtained  to  poultice  the  wound.  In  spite  of  his  brother's  unremitting 
care  and  the  kindly  attentions  of  the  good-hearted  miners  in  the  neigh- 
borhood he  became  very  ill.  Gangrene  set  in,  and  on  the  2d  of  Septem- 
ber he  died. 

The  loss  of  his  brother  was  a  crushing  aifliction  to  Allen ;  yet  he 
bore  even  this  trial  with  noble  resignation.  On  the  7th  of  September 
he  wrote  to  his  father  of  Hosea's  accident,  illness,  death,  and  burial  in 
the  remote  Utah  canon  :  "  In  the  first  burst  of  my  sorrow  I  complained 
bitterly,"  he  continued,  "  of  the  dispensation  which  deprived  me  of  what 
I  held  most  dear  of  all  the  world,  and  I  thought  it  most  hard  that  he 
=^hould  be  called  away  just  as  we  had  fair  hopes  of  realizing  what  we  had 
labored  for  so  hard  for  so  many  years.  But  when  I  reflected  how  well  an 
upright  life  had  prepared  him  for  the  next,  and  what  a  debt  of  gratitude 
I  owed  to  God  in  blessing  me  for  so  many  years  with  so  dear  a  companion, 
I  became  calm  and  bowed  my  head  in  resignation.  '  0,  Father,  thy  will, 
not  mine,  be  done.'  Our  happy  faith  in  the  perfection  of  God's  wisdom 
and  goodness  will  be  your  consolation  as  this  cloud  passes  over  your  head, 
for  well  I  know  your  heart  is  full  of  the  great  hope  which  caused  Paul  to 
shout  in  triumph,  '  0  death,  where  is  thy  sting !  0  grave,  where  is  thy 
victory !'  " 

On  September  11th  he  wrote  again :  "  I  feel  very  lonely  and  miss  Hosea 
very  much — so  much  that  at  times  I  am  strongly  tempted  to  abandon 
everything  and  leave  the  country  forever,  cowardly  as  such  a  course  would 
be.  But  I  shall  go  on  ;  it  is  my  duty,  and  I  cannot  bear  to  give  anything 
up  until  I  bring  it  to  a  conclusion.  By  Hosea's  death  you  fall  heir  to  his 
share  in  the  enterprise.  We  have,  so  far,  four  veins.  Three  of  them 
promise  much." 

After  writing  this  letter  he  set  to  work  unremittingly  to  pay  off  the 


30  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

debt  incurred  by  Hosea's  sickness  and  burial.  By  the  middle  of  Novem- 
ber he  had  paid  all  creditors  and  was  ready  to  cross  the  Sierras,  as  he  had 
intended  to  do  before  the  first  snows  fell.  The  death  of  his  brother  had 
so  delayed  his  preparations  that  he  was  obliged  to  attempt  the  passage  too 
late  in  the  season  for  safety ;  but  he  was  most  anxious  to  leave  a  place 
associated  with  a  grief  so  recent  and  so  bitter,  and  he  felt  more  deeply 
than  ever  the  necessity  of  interesting  capital  in  developing  his  ledge 
locations.  Accordingly  he  set  out  with  one  companion,  a  young  prospector 
from  Canada,  Richard  M.  Bucke,  to  cross  the  mountains  into  California 
on  the  20th  of  November. 

The  miseries  of  that  terrible  passage  are  told  with  the  simple  minute- 
ness of  a  daily  record  by  his  companion.  The  two  adventurers  reached 
Lake  Tahoe,  near  the  head  of  the  Truckee  River,  only  to  be  overtaken  by 
a  storm  which  obliterated  the  trail,  buried  the  surrounding  mountains 
under  deep  snow-drifts,  and  hemmed  them  in  by  their  solitary  camp-fire 
in  Squaw  Valley  as  within  the  walls  of  a  prison. 

Their  provisions  were  exhausted.  To  turn  back  appeared  as  difficult 
and  dangerous  as  to  press  on.  After  fruitless  attempts  to  follow  the  trail, 
they  killed  the  donkey  which  they  had  led  with  them,  as  he  could  not 
struggle  through  the  snow,  took  as  much  of  his  flesh  as  they  could  carry, 
and  set  out  by  the  most  practicable  course  across  the  range.  They  climbed 
from  point  to  point,  always  waist-deep  in  snow,  dragging  themselves  up 
by  bushes  and  jutting  rocks,  struggling  on  desperately  until  they  reached 
the  summit.  The  day  was  clear  (November  29th) ,  but  the  wind  blew  so 
fiercely  and  coldly  in  their  faces  on  the  top  of  the  bare  ridge  that  they  were 
nearly  benumbed  before  they  could  gain  shelter  under  the  trees  on  the 
western  slope.  Their  matches  were  wet  and  spoiled  in  Squaw  Valley.  After 
repeated  trials  they  lighted  a  fire  by  a  flash  of  powder  from  their  gun  and 
warmed  themselves.  But  a  second  storm  broke  over  them.  The  snow 
was  so  soft  that  they  could  not  use  the  rude  snow-shoes  which  they  had 
made,  and  they  could  not  follow  the  trail  along  the  ridge  in  the  face  of  the 
keen  wind.  In  the  midst  of  the  storm  they  lost  their  way  completely,  for 
they  could  not  see  two  hundred  yards  before  them.  Their  gun  was  wet 
and  rusty  and  could  not  be  fired,  so  that  for  the  sake  of  the  needful 


THE  GOLD  CANON  PLACER  MINING  COLONY.  31 

warmth  they  burrowed  holes  in  the  snow,  and  thus  passed  the  night  of 
the  2d  of  December.  Their  scanty  load  of  donkey  flesh  was  eaten,  and 
want  of  sleep  and  food  was  beginning  to  weaken  them ;  yet  they  pushed 
on  until  they  reached  the  Middle  Fork  of  the  American  River. 

They  followed  the  course  of  this  stream  as  closely  as  was  practicable, 
but  could  find  no  inhabited  cabins  or  muddy  creeks  showing  signs  of 
miners  at  work.  On  the  oth  of  December  they  did  not  feel  hungry,  but 
had  a  "horrible  sinking  feeling  in  the  region  of  the  stomach,"  which  Dr. 
Bucke  remembered  vividly  twenty-three  years  later.  He  was  the  strongest 
of  the  two,  but  "Allen,"  as  he  writes,  "was  the  least  inclined  to  give  up." 
He  proposed  on  this  day,  the  5th,  "to  lie  down  and  die.  Allen  would  not 
listen  to  me,  but  said  'no,  we  will  keep  going  as  long  as  we  can.'  That 
night,  the  5th  of  December,  we  made  our  bed  in  silence  and  lay  down." 

The  boy  Bucke  had  strange  visions.  Perishing  from  hunger,  he  dreamed 
of  feasting  on  quail  and  all  manner  of  delicacies.^  In  the  morning  the  two 
men  were  hardly  able  to  crawl  along.  "We  went  almost  as  much  on  our 
hands  and  knees  as  on  our  feet."  Hope  was  dead,  but  they  were  resolved 
to  drag  themselves  on  while  they  could  move  hand  or  foot.  They  were  not 
afraid  to  die,  but  they  could  not  bear  the  thought  of  loved  ones  at  home 
waiting  vainly  for  their  return  and  brooding  over  the  horrors  of  their 
clouded  fate.^  This  unselfish  remembrance  nerved  their  weak  limbs  as 
they  crept  side  by  side  through  the  snow.  From  daybreak  till  noon  they 
had  crawled  less  than  a  mile  and  their  eyes  were  closing  from  overmas- 
tering faintness,  when  they  heard  the  bark  of  a  dog  and  saw  a  thin  wreath 
of  smoke  in  the  air. 

They  were  rescued,  but  too  late,  for  their  feet  were  badly  frozen  and  they 
could  neither  eat  nor  sleep.  Allen  Grosh  died  on  the  twelfth  day  after 
reaching  the  mining  camp  —  the  Last  Chance.  Only  a  few  months  before 
he  had  written  his  father:  "Hosea  and  I  had  lived  so  much  together,  with 
and  for  each  other,  that  it  was  our  earnest  desire  that  we  might  pass  out 
of  the  world  as  we  had  passed  through  it  —  hand  in  hand."^  This  wish,  at 
least,  was  granted.     United  in  life,  in  death  they  were  not  divided. 

'  Alpheus  Bull,  Vice-President  Firemen's  Fnnd  Insurance  Company,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
"Eichard  M.  Bucke.  ^  Letter  of  Allen  Grosh,  September  7,  1857. 


32  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

One  of  Bucke's  feet  was  rudely  amputated  at  the  ankle  joint  and  a 
portion  of  the  other  was  also  cut  off.  He  reached  the  hospitable  door  of 
Alpheus  Bull,  in  San  Francisco,  hobbling  on  his  bandaged  stumps,  and  by 
Mr.  Bull's  assistance  he  was  carried  to  his  home  in  Canada,  from  whence, 
on  recovering  health,  he  went  to  Europe  to  pursue  studies  in  medicine.^ 

He  had  seen  the  course  of  one  of  the  veins  at  Gold  Canon  and  a 
button  of  silver  from  an  assay  made  by  the  Grosh  brothers,  but  knew 
little  definitely  of  the  location  or  extent  of  their  discoveries.  George 
Brown,  the  only  man  who  had  any  accurate  information  in  regard  to  the 
ledges  which  they  had  located,  had  been  murdered,^  and  the  papers  of  Allen 
Grosh,  in  which  his  claims  were  defined  and  recorded,  had  been  thrown 
away  with  everything  else,  except  a  few  handfuls  of  meat,  when  the 
desperate  men  were  struggling  to  pass  the  summit  of  the  range,  and  lay 
buried  many  feet  under  the  sierran  snow.^  Mrs.  L.  M.  Dettenrieder  declares 
positively  that  Allen  Grosh  pointed  out  to  her,  as  she  stood  by  his  cabin, 
the  general  location  of  one  of  his  ledges  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  largest 
mountain  of  the  range  at  the  head  of  Gold  Caiion,  on  the  day  when  she 
brought  to  him  the  news  of  his  friend  Brown's  death.  If  her  testimony 
is  accepted,  and  her  character  has  never  been  impeached,  the  Grosh 
brothers  died  on  the  very  threshold  of  fortune;  but  she  could  not  identify 
the  ledge,  and,  on  learning  of  the  death  of  the  brothers,  all  thought  of 
prosecuting  the  work  further  was  abandoned.  Their  years  of  patient 
and  intelligent  search  were  therefore  fruitless,  and  it  was  left  for  a  lazy, 
drunken  prospector  to  stumble  upon  the  prize  for  which  the  brothers 
had  striven. 

'  Richard  M.  Bucke,  Superintendent  Asylum  for  the  Insane,  London,  Canada. 
»  Sacramento  Union,  August  14,  1857.  »K.  M.  Bucke. 


CHAPTER    III. 

THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  GOMSTOCK  LODE. 

In  January,  1858,  less  than  a  month  after  the  death  of  Allen  Grosh, 
some  of  the  miners  at  Gold  Canon  organized  a  quartz  mining  district,  the 
first'  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras  north  of  the  Mexican  border  line, 
in  a  meeting  held  at  Johntown,  a  little  settlement  made  in  1855,  two  miles 
from  the  foot  of  the  canon.  A  recorder,  William  H.  Dolman,  was  elected, 
and  a  few  simple  regulations  were  enacted  to  govern  the  location  and 
development  of  mining  claims.^ 

The  Columbia  Quartz  District,  as  it  was  styled,  was  bounded  by  lines 
beginning  at  the  mouth  of  Six-mile  Canon ;  thence  up  Carson  River  to 
the  mouth  of  Clear  Creek ;  thence  to  centre  of  divide  between  Eagle  and 
Washoe  Valleys ;  thence  north  along  the  centre  of  said  divide  to  the 
north  branch  of  Six-mile  Canon ;  thence  down  said  canon  to  place  of 
beginning. 

The  recorder  and  three  or  four  other's  who  were  most  active  in  calling 
the  meeting  had  recently  arrived  from  Placerville,  Cal.,  and  the  laws  drafted 
were  substantially  a  reproduction  of  the  Placerville  Quartz  Mining  District 
laws.^ 

Shortly  after  the  organization  of  this  district  a  few  rude  attempts 
were  made  to  crush  the  rock  croppings  near  the  canon  and  extract  their 

'The  Sonora  Exploriug  and  Miuiiig  CoiLpany,  whose  headquarters  were  at  Tubac,  begau  explorations  in 
1853  throughout  Sonora  and  the  tract  known  .ns  the  Gadsden  Purchase,  and  opened  several  mines  within  the 
territory  of  the  United  States.  Several  veins  of  rich  ore  were  developed,  but  as  all  mining  operations  were 
carried  on  by  the  employes  of  the  company  no  mining  districts  were  organized,  and  the  influence  of  the  enter- 
prise was  not  far  reaching,  though  the  editor  of  the  San  Diego  Herald  looked  upon  the  opening  of  these  veins  of 
ore  as  the  beginning  of  a  new  era  of  mining  in  this  country. — (San  Diego  Herald,  July  25,  1857 ;  report  of  Col. 
Chas.  D.  Preston,  Manager  Sonora  Exploring  and  Mining  Company.) 

A  ledge  containing  silver  ore  was  discovered  near  the  East  Fork  of  the  Carson  River  in  the  summer  of 
1857  (Sacramento  Union,  August  24,  1857),  but  no  systematic  attempt  was  ever  made  to  develop  it,  though  it 
was  vaguely  reported  to  be  very  rich,  and  few  prospectors  had  the  curiosity  to  inspect  it. 

2 Nevada  Directory,  1861;  J.  Wells  Kelly,  Compiler. 

^William  Naileigh,  Virginia  City,  Nev. 

(3  H  c)  (33) 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

metallic  contents.  A  small  association,  self-styled  the  Pioneer  Quartz 
Company,  located  several  lodes,  but  worked  only  one,  the  Moselle,^  on 
Pioneer  Hill,  directly  east  of  the  narrowest  part  of  the  caiion,  the  Devil's 
Gate.  A  rough  road  was  made  leading  from  the  ledge  to  the  canon  below, 
and  an  arrastra  was  built  to  reduce  the  quartz.  Four  or  five  tons  of  rock 
were  hauled  down  into  the  ravine  and  all  put  into  the  arrastra  at  once. 
The  two  mules  attached  to  the  beam  walked  around  in  a  beaten  circle  for 
three  weeks  and  succeeded  in  pulverizing  about  one-tenth  of  the  heap  of 
broken  rock.  At  the  end  of  this  time  the  resulting  amalgam  was  retorted 
and  three  and  one-half  ounces  of  bullion  was  obtained,  which  was  sent 
to  Sacramento  for  assay.  A  return  of  $42  in  gold  was  made,  and  the 
Pioneer  Quartz  Company,  after  a  rapid  comparison  of  their  debit  and 
credit  accounts,  went  back  to  work  at  the  placer  diggings.^ 

Meanwhile,  by  a  freak  of  chance,  fortune  fell  into  the  hands  of  a 
western  Rip  Van  Winkle.  James  Finney,  a  native  of  Virginia,  whence  his 
sobriquet  of  "Old  Virginny,"  had  been  working  in  the  cailoa  since  1851,^ 
and  was  accounted  by  the  prospectors  an  oracle  in  mining  matters,  so  that 
if  he  cast  his  eye  upon  a  jutting  rock,  or  a  handful  of  dirt,  and  pro- 
nounced it  rich,  his  companions  required  no  further  evidence.  Unfortu- 
nately Finney  was  fit  for  little  else  than  a  divining  rod,  as  he  only  remained 
sober  when  he  was  too  poor  to  buy  whisky  and  would  never  work  longer 
than  was  necessary  to  obtain  the  means  of  filling  his  bottle. 

It  chanced,  however,  on  the  22d  of  February,  1858,  that  while  ram- 
bling over  the  hills  north  of  Gold  Canon  he  fancied  the  appearance  of  a 
ledge  of  rock  on  the  northeastern  slope  of  the  highest  mountain  of  the 
range,  called  the  Sun  Peak  by  the  miners,  and  determined  to  claim  it  as 
his  property.  Climbing  up  the  rocks,  he  hid  in  a  natural  crevice  a  slip  of 
paper  on  which  was  written,  in  pencil,  a  brief  notice  of  location,  and  covered 
the  deposit  with  a  fragment  of  quartz.  He  never  attempted  to  develop 
his  claim  as  required  by  the  district  laws,  but  from  that  day  forth  his 
possessory  title  was  recognized  by  the  miners.* 


'Nevada  Directory,  1861. 

■^  Nevada  Directory,  1861.     William  Wright,  Kditor  Virginia  City  Territorial  Entes-prise,  1880. 

"  Mrs.  L.  M.  Detttnrieder. 

■•  Isa.ic  E.  James,  Superintendent  Sierra  Nevada  Mining  Comp.any,  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  1880. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE.  35 

The  truth  is  that  the  regulations  of  the  Columbia  Quartz  District  were 
forgotten  or  only  dimly  remembered  before  a  month  had  elapsed  after 
their  adoption.  It  was  difficult  for  any  meeting  to  frame  rules  which  the 
body  of  miners  would  recognize  as  binding,  for  on  one  pretext  or  another 
compliance  with  any  rule  would  be  evaded  or  the  existence  even  of  a  code 
ignored.  If  only  a  portion  of  the  miners  of  the  district  were  present  at  the 
meeting  in  January,  the  absentees  might  refuse  to  sanction  the  proceedings 
of  this  informal  convention  or  to  obey  laws  which  they  had  no  voice  in 
framing;  if  the  laws  were  adopted  by  a  majority  vote,  the  minority  in  the 
convention  might  decline  to  be  governed  by  the  decision.  Even  if  the  shift- 
ing population  of  the  Johntown  camp  could  be  supposed  to  have  adopted 
this  code  by  unanimous  consent,  its  constitution  was  fatally  defective  in  the 
lack  of  provision  for  the  enforcement  of  its  articles.  Public  opinion  or 
the  sentiment  of  the  majority  might  be  opposed  to  an  infraction  of  the 
code,  but  a  mere  expression  of  opinion  was  not  a  preventive.  United 
action  was  often  necessary,  and  this  could  not  often  be  secured;  for  it  was 
not  in  the  nature  of  the  easy-humored  miner  to  insist  upon  a  strict 
observance  of  rules,  and  except  when  his  own  interests  were  at  stake  he 
did  not  care  whether  another  man  obeyed  the  laws  or  broke  them. 

In  spite,  therefore,  of  Finney's  neglect  to  develop  his  claim,  as  it  was 
accounted  of  fanciful  value  merely,  no  one  sought  to  dispute  his  rights 
on  any  pretext,  and  the  ledge  was  christened  the  Virginia  Lead  in  honor 
of  its  discoverer.  The  attention  of  the  miners  was  drawn,  however,  to 
the  hills  above  the  canon,  as  its  paying  sands  were  rapidly  becoming 
exhausted. 

In  the  winter  of  1858-'59  Finney  and  three  others,  John  Bishop, 
Alexander  Henderson,  and  John  Yount,  set  out  from  Johntown  to  prospect 
on  the  slope  of  the  Sun  Peak  about  a  mile  south  of  Finney's  location  on 
the  Virginia  Ledge.^  Finney  had  noticed  a  large  broad-topped  mound  on 
a  previous  excursion  and  proposed  to  make  the  first  trial  of  the  earth  at 
this  spot.  The  mound  was  covered  with  snow,  but  on  shoveling  this 
away   a  panful  o.f   dirt  was  taken  out  and  washed  by  Bishop.^    About 

1  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  7,  1863.     C.  C.  Stevenson,  Gold  Hill,  Nev.,  1880. 
'  John  Bishop,  vide  "The  Big  Bonanza,"  p.  42,  by  "  Dan  de  Quille,"  William  Wright. 


36  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

fifteen  cents  worth  of  gold  dust  was  left  in  the  pan,  a  high  average  return, 
and  Finney,  in  hunting  over  the  mound,  found  a  gopher  hole  around  which 
was  a  heap  of  finely  pulverized  earth.  The  prospectors  carried  this  heap 
to  a  neighboring  ravine  running  into  Gold  Canon,  down  which  a  small 
stream  of  water  was  flowing,  and  the  yield  of  dust  was  still  more  satis- 
factory, whereupon  the  men  staked  out  at  once  four  rectangular  claims, 
each  60  feet  by  400,  giving  Finney,  as  the  discoverer,  the  first  choice.^ 

A  few  days  afterwards  Henry  Comstock  and  four  others,  James  Rogers, 
Joseph  Plato,  Alexander  Bowers,  and  William  Knight,  came  to  the  newly- 
discovered  diggings  and  took  up  a  fifth  claim  of  "50  feet  frontage,  running 
up  the  hill  400  feet,"  assigning  10  feet  on  the  line  to  each  man.  Water 
was  obtained  by  laying  a  flume  of  boards  roughly  nailed  together  from  a 
point  high  up  in  the  ravine,  on  the  southern  side  of  the  Sun  Peak,  to  the 
foot  of  the  mound  of  earth,  which  the  miners  soon  named  Gold  Hill. 
The  only  method  used  in  extracting  the  gold  was  the  simple  one  employed 
on  the  canon  placers.  Work  was  not  fairly  begun  until  April  (1859j , 
when  the  dirt  was  shown  to  be  comparatively  rich.-  The  first  hun- 
dred rocker  washings  yielded  a  little  over  $5,  but,  in  the  course  of  a  day 
or  two,  mercury  which  had  been  brought  from  Johntown  was  used,  and 
the  result  of  a  single  man's  work  was  $17.  The  average  daily  return  to 
each  miner  was  from  |8  to  $25,  though  on  some  claims  the  product  was 
greater.^ 

While  the  miners  at  Gold  Hill  were  slowly  removing  the  dirt  and 
crumbling  rock  from  the  surface  of  their  claims,  another  party  was  steadily 
approaching  the  line  of  the  lode  from  a  difi'erent  quarter. 

In  1857,  when  the  richest  placer  bars  in  Gold  Gallon  had  already  been 
worked  for  years  and  showed  signs  of  exhaustion,  the  Johntown  miners 
had  been  compelled  to  prospect  in  other  ravines  leading  up  from  the 
valley  much  more  thoroughly  than  they  had  previously  done.*  Beds  of 
silt  had  been  found  in  a  caiion  descending  from  the  foot  of  the  Sun  Peak 
into  the  valley  in  a  line  running  nearly  east  from  the  croppings  of  the 

'  C.  C.  Stevenson,  Gold  Hill,  Nev. 

'  "Early  Times,"  Temtorial Enterprise,  Juue  20,  1875. 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  April  28,  1859;  Quoted  by  Sacramento  Union,  May  9,  1859. 

■•  William  Wright,  "Big  Bonanza,"  p.  31. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  37 

Virginia  Ledge.  The  dust  obtained  from  the  rockers  was  lighter  in  color 
and  less  valuable  than  any  previously  washed  out,  but  the  placers  were 
new  and  the  return  in  quantity  was  sufficient  to  make  up  for  the  difference 
iu  quality.  Besides,  the  miners  were  in  the  habit  of  buying  a  small 
amount  of  heavy  California  gold  dust,  mixing  it  with  their  own  gold  and 
selling  this  ingenious  combination  in  Placerville,  on  the  other  side  of 
the  mountains,  for  |15  per  ounce,  until  the  canon  bullion  became  so  poor 
that  the  trick  could  no  longer  be  successfully  performed.^  Although 
deprived  of  this  labor-saving  invention  the  miners  continued  at  work. 
The  silt  deposited  in  the  canon  was  a  heavy,  tough  clay,  which  they 
were  obliged  to  puddle  before  they  could  separate  the  earth  from  the 
gold  in  their  rockers.  The  process  of  puddling  consisted  in  stirring  the 
clay  briskly  about  in  a  large  box  or  hole  in  the  ground  filled  with  water, 
by  which  means  the  mass  was  finally  reduced  to  a  thin  pulp.  Even 
working  under  this  two-fold  disadvantage  the  men  were  able  to  earn  from 
|5  to  $12  per  day  individually.  As  the  brook  flowing  through  the  canon 
narrowed  to  a  thread  in  early  summer  the  miners  worked  higher  up  the 
canon,  ascending  steadily  toward  the  source  of  the  diminishing  stream.^ 

Thus  at  the  time  when  the  Gold  Hill  placer  was  beginning  to  yield 
rich  returns  (May,  1859)  the  miners  in  the  canon  to  the  north  had  moved 
up  the  ravine  until  two  of  their  number,  Patrick  McLaughlin  and  Peter 
O'Riley,  were  washing  dirt  on  the  slope  of  the  hill  at  its  head.  The  earth 
was  so  poor  that  they  were  fast  becoming  discouraged  and  talked  of  setting 
out  for  the  diggings  on  the  Walker  River,  which  were  then  thought  to  be 
promising  well,  but  they  worked  on,  hoping  to  earn  enough  to  purchase 
the  outfit  necessary  for  their  proposed  venture,  and  made  their  trench 
each  day  farther  up  the  hill.^  A  little  rill  of  water  flowed  down  the  slope 
toward  them,  but  so  slender  was  the  stream  that,  in  order  to  use  it  for 
their  rockers,  they  were  obliged  to  dig  a  hole  in  the  ground  as  a  reservoir 
when  they  had  crossed  the  narrow  basin  at  the  head  of  the  canon  and 
reached  the  steep  side  of  the  Sun  Peak.*  Accordingly,  on  the  8th  of  June 
they  began  to  dig  this  water-hole  a  short  distance  above  the  cut  where 


'Willian  Xaileigli,  William  Wright.  =  William  Wright,  "Big  Bonanza,"  p.  31. 

^Wiliijui  Wright,  "Big  Bonanza,"  p.  47.         ■',Jusc|ili  Wondworll].  San  Franci&co,  December  1,  1879. 


38  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

they  were  mining.^  The  earth  thrown  out  carelessly  by  their  shovels  was 
a  yellowish  sand  mixed  with  bits  of  quartz  and  friable  black  rock,  such  as 
they  had  never  seen  before.  Simply  as  an  experiment  they  concluded  to 
wash  a  little  of  the  sand  in  their  rocker,  though  they  had  slight  hope  that 
it  would  yield  any  return.  From  the  trench  sand  they  had  been  getting 
only  a  few  specks  of  gold  dust,  but  when  the  new  earth  had  been  shaken 
in  the  rocker  and  the  muddy  water  had  drained  away  they  saw  the  bottom 
of  the  cradle  covered  with  glittering  dust.^  Overjoyed  at  their  good  for- 
tune they  began  to  wash  hastily  the  precious  earth,  and  again  and  again 
swept  up  a  golden  layer.^  The  dust  was  of  a  pale  yellow  color,  and  the 
miners  supposed  that  it  was  alloyed  with  some  base  metal,  but  it  was 
unmistakably  gold,  and  even  with  their  rude  cradle  they  were  fast  making 
a  fortune. 

The  line  of  the  great  lode  had  been  cut  once  more,  and  a  modern 
box  of  Pandora  fairly  opened.  As  usual,  however,  a  loud-spoken  trickster 
contrived  to  rob  the  true  discoverers  of  whatever  honor  is  due  them. 
The  names  of  John  Orr,  Hosea  and  Allen  Grosh,  James  Finney,  Peter 
O'Riley,  and  Patrick  McLaughlin  are  almost  unknown, — the  Comstock 
lode  is  famous  throughout  the  world. 

How  Henry  Comstock  won  his  monument  and  cut  the  name  of  an 
impostor  ineffaceably  in  the  rock  is  briefly  told.  He  was  a  tall,  gaunt 
Canadian,  who  had  wandered  about  for  many  years  as  a  fur-trader  and 
trapper,  and  at  length  drifted  to  Gold  Canon,  where  he  prospected  with 
indifferent  success,  like  most  of  the  miners,  until  he  took  up  a  claim  at 
Gold  Hill,  as  has  been  noted,  after  the  supposed  placer  had  been  marked 
out  by  the  four  discoverers.  Always  on  the  watch  to  avail  himself  of  the 
exertions  of  others  with  as  little  fatigue  to  himself  as  possible,  he  quickly 
installed  himself  in  the  vacant  cabin  of  the  Grosh  brothers  and  managed 
to  hold  his  productive  claim  through  the  labor  of  two  Indians  only  less 
lazy  than  himself.*  Thus  relieved  from  the  irksome  necessity  of  washing 
sand  for  a  living,  he  was  able  to  gratify  his  taste  for  rambling  about 

'  James  Corey,  March  29, 1877 ;  testimony  under  oath ;  S.  C.  Barnes  et  al.  vs.  California  Mining  Company. 
^William  Wright,  "The  Big  Bonanza,"  p.  48.        '  Joseph  Woodworth,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 
< Letter  of  H.  T.  P.  Comstock;  "The  Big  Bonanza,"  pp.  46,84. 


THE  DISCOVERT  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  39 

aimlessly  from  point  to  point,  and  by  chance  came  riding  over  the 
hills  in  the  early  evening  of  the  day  on  which  the  discovery  was  made. 
The  two  Irishmen  were  preparing  to  leave  the  ground  for  the  night  and 
were  cleaning  up  their  rocker  for  the  last  time.  They  had  marked  in 
some  way  by  stones  or  stakes  the  hmits  of  their  claim,  and  had  no  reason 
to  suppose  that  their  rights  would  be  disputed.  As  he  approached  the 
water-hole  his  restless  eye  caught  sight  of  the  earth  heap  and  the  rich 
contents  of  the  rocker.  Without  a  word  he  sprang  from  his  pony  and 
threw  himself  on  his  knees  in  the  hole,  running  his  fingers  through  the 
dirt  and  observing  the  tiny  spangles  which  clung  to  his  hands.  Standing 
up  at  length  he  coolly  informed  the  astonished  miners  that  they  were 
trespassing  on  his  land.  A  goat  might  search  in  vain  for  food  among  the 
crags  and  crumbling  rocks  of  that  barren  peak,  but  Comstock  pretended 
that  he  had  taken  up  a  tract  of  160  acres  along  the  slope  of  the  mountain 
for  a  ranch,  and  that  the  conveniently  indefinite  boundaries  of  this  tract 
included  the  water-hole  and  trench  where  the  men  were  working.  He 
was  willing,  however,  to  allow  them  to  continue  work,  if  they  in  turn 
would  recognize  his  proprietary  rights  by  conceding  to  his  friend  Emanuel 
Penrod  and  himself  an  equal  share  in  their  claim.^ 

A  more  preposterous  demand  could  scarcely  be  made.  He  had  no  title 
to  the  ground  and  no  record  of  his  ranche  location.  The  land  in  question 
was  the  property  of  the  United  States,  open  by  tacit  consent  for  the 
occupation  and  use  of  any  citizen.  Yet  he  talked  so  loud  and  long  that 
the  miners  for  the  sake  of  peace  agreed  to  his  proposal;  but  not  content 
with  this  concession  to  his  ridiculous  pretensions,  he  laid  claim  further  to 
the  little  stream  which  the  men  were  using,  asserting  that  it  flowed  from 
a  spring  higher  up  the  hill,  which  Finney,  Penrod,  and  himself  had 
bought  from  the  first  discoverer  and  claimant.  His  title  to  the  water  was, 
perhaps,  less  absurd  than  his  lien  upon  the  land,  and  he  succeeded,  at 
any  rate,  in  carrying  his  point  by  obtaining  a  grant  of  100  feet  on  the 
line  of  the  rich  seam  on  condition  tliat  the  right  to  use  the  water  should 
be  enjoyed  by  the  partners  in  common.  When  this  question  was  amicably 
settled,  McLaughlin  and  O'Riley  worked  on  quietly  for  two  days  longer, 

'William  Wright,  "Big  Bonanza,"  p.  51. 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

obtaining  each  day  richer  returns,  while  Comstock  busied  himself  in 
prospecting  on  the  new  claim  and  in  making  preparation  for  the  meeting 
which  the  miners  proposed  to  hold  on  the  11th  of  June,  near  his  claim 
on  Gold  Hill,  in  order  to  frame  laws  and  regulations  for  a  new  mining 
district.^ 

In  order  to  establish  an  undisputed  title  to  their  claim  and  obtain 
the  unanimous  passage  of  regulations  enabling  them  to  secure  the  extent 
of  ground  they  desired,  Comstock  and  his  partners  determined  to  conceal 
their  good  fortune.  Accordingly,  on  the  morning  of  the  10th  of  June  they 
filled  in  the  hole  and  removed,  as  far  as  possible,  the  traces  of  their  recent 
work.^  On  the  evening  of  the  11th  of  June  the  miners  of  the  canons 
assembled  at  Gold  Hill  and  the  meeting  was  formally  opened.^ 

To  clearly  understand  the  foundation,  character,  and  value  of  the 
laws  adopted  for  the  government  of  the  proposed  district,  it  is  necessary 
to  review  the  political  condition  of  the  county  and  to  see  what  law- 
making powers,  if  any,  were  vested  in  this  informal  assembly.  The 
years  which  succeeded  the  migration  of  the  Mormon  Valley  settlers 
and  the  practical  dissolution  of  the  county  organization  were  a  troubled 
period,  as  might  be  supposed.  How  tavern  "house-warmings"  broke 
up  in  "free  fights;"*  how  "cotillion  parties"  ended  in  war  dances;'^  how 
the  Wash-o  Indians  stampeded  the  horses  of  the  settlers  and  trans- 
fixed two  venturesome  prospectors  with  arrows,'^  and  how  the  whites  held 
a  summary  court-martial  and  shot  one  of  the  adjudged  culprits  in  the 
back  as  he  made  a  bold  dash  through  his  guard  after  sentence  was  pro- 
nounced,' can  only  be  mentioned  in  passing. 

The  climax  was  reached  on  a  June  morning  in  1858,  when  a  body  of 
horsemen  from  a  neighboring  district  rode  through  the  valley  of  the 
Carson  in  a  line  stretching  from  side  to  side  and  caught  in  their  net  a 
gang  of  alleged  cattle  thieves  and  murderers.'  Three  judges  presided  over 


'  James  Corey,  Mar.  29,  1877 ;  testimony  under  oath ;  S.  C.  Barnes  et  al.  m.  The  California  Mining  Company. 
'•'James  Corey. 
3  Gold  Hill  Records. 

Sacramento  Union,  ■•  August  26,  1857,  «  April  19,  1858,  <*  September  8,  1857,  '  October  31,  1857. 
"Sacramento  Union,  June   17,  June  23,  June  25,  July  2,  1858;  Territorial  Enterprise,  June  20,  1872; 
John  S.  Cliilds,  Probate  Judge,  Genoa,  Nev.,  1880. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  41 

the  trial  and  lynch-law  justice  was  administered  witli  all  due  form. 
One  offender  had  previously  been  hung  in  Honey  Lake  Valley  after 
a  futile  attempt  to  obtain  the  names  of  his  accomplices  by  choking  him 
with  a  noose,^  and  the  court  understood  its  duty.  William  Thorington, 
a  hospitable,  obliging,  and  social  rogue,  owning  a  station-house  in 
the  valley,  was  led  out  to  execution  singing  the  "Last  Rose  of  Sum- 
mer," and  adjusted  the  rope  about  his  own  neck.^  James  Edwards  was 
also  hung,  and  three  others  fined  or  banished. 

This  exploit  of  the  Vigilance  Committee  resulted  in  the  formation  of 
a  Law  and  Order  Party,  composed  of  citizens  who  believed  the  trial  a  farce 
and  that  Thorington  in  particular  was  condemned  unjustly.  Through  the 
representations  of  this  party  Governor  Cummings,  of  Utah,  appointed  John 
S.  Childs,  of  Genoa,  to  fill  the  office  of  probate  judge  in  1858,^  and  the 
legislative  assembly  of  Utah  were  at  length  prevailed  upon  to  reorganize 
Carson  County — Act  approved  January  17,  1859.*  The  extraordinary 
judicial  powers  attached  to  the  probate  judgeship  were  so  unprecedented 
that  the  appointee  declined,  with  natural  caution,  to  preside  alone  at 
the  trial  of  important  criminal  cases.*  As  there  was  no  jail  in  which 
to  confine  offenders,  and  the  district  court  held  most  irregular  and 
infrequent  sessions,  criminals  went  unpunished  or  received  their  deserts 
in  a  summary  manner.  So  when  John  Herring  blew  off  the  top  of  E.  H. 
Knott's  head  without  apparent  cause,  a  jury  was  impaneled  "  by  the 
people"  and  the  murderer  tried  "with  all  possible  regard  for  the  requisite 
formalities  of  the  law.'"^ 

The  civil  and  judicial  condition  of  the  district  in  the  summer  of  1859 
is  apparent  without  comment.  The  Gold  Hill  miners  recognized  their 
position  in  the  following  characteristic  preamble,  and  the  austere  resolu- 
tions appended  are  curious  reading  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events. 

'  WilUatn  Naileigli,  eye-witness;  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  1880. 

^  William  Naileigli,  Virginia  City,  Nev. ;  John  S.  Cbilds,  Geno.i,  Douglas  County,  Nev. 

'John  S.  Childs,  Probate  Judge,  Carson  County,  1858. 

■•Acts  and  Kesolutions,  Legislative  Assembly  of  Utah,  1859. 

6  John  S.  Cbilds. 

*Sacramento  Union,  March  17, 1859;  John  S.  Cbilds. 


42  HISTOET  OF  THE  COM3TOCK  LODE. 


PREAMBLE. 


Whereas,  the  isolated  position  we  occupy,  far  from  all  legal  tribunals,  and  cut  off 
from  those  fountains  of  justice  which  every  American  citizen  should  enjoy,  renders  it 
necessary  that  we  organize  in  body  politic  for  our  mutual  protection  against  the  lawless, 
and  for  meting  out  justice  between  man  and  man ;  therefore,  we,  citizens  of  Gold  Hill,  do 
hereby  agree  to  adopt  the  following  rules  and  laws  for  our  government: 

rules  and  regulations. 

Article  4. 

Section  1.  Any  person  who  shall  wilfully  and  with  malice  aforethought  take  the 
life  of  any  person  shall,  upon  being  duly  convicted  thereof,  suffer  the  penalty  of  death  by 
hanging. 

Sec.  2.  Any  person  who  shall  wilfully  wound  another  shall,  upon  conviction  thereof, 
suffer  such  penalty  as  the  jury  may  determine. 

Sec.  3.  Any  person  found  guilty  of  robbery  or  theft  shall,  upon  conviction,  be 
punished  with  stripes  or  banishment,  as  the  jury  may  determine. 

Sec.  4.  Any  person  found  guilty  of  assault  and  battery,  or  exhibiting  deadly  weapons, 
shall,  upon  conviction,  be  fined  or  banished,  as  the  jury  may  determine. 

Sec.  5.  No  banking  games,  under  any  consideration,  shall  be  allowed  in  this  district 
under  the  penalty  of  final  banishment  from  the  district. 

The  abhorrence  of  gambling,  wrangling,  and  homicide,  evident  in  these 
simple  ordinances,  would  be  creditable  to  an  Arcadian  community,  and  the 
moral  standard  of  the  legislators  was  consciously  so  high  that  it  was 
judged  sufficient  to  commit  the  easy  task  of  enforcing  the  code  to  a  single 
justice  of  the  peace  and  the  constable,  his  deputy. 

It  remains  to  inquire  what  laws,  if  any,  existed  governing  the  location 
and  development  of  mining  claims.  German  mining  law,  it  has  been  said, 
was  the  product  of  antagonism,  a  compromise  growing  out  of  the  struggle 
to  maintain  the  right  of  free  mining  against  the  prerogatives  of  royalty. 
American  prospectors  had  no  such  contest  to  pass  through.  At  the  date 
of  the  meeting  at  Gold  Hill  there  were  no  laws  to  govern  or  restrictions 
to  hamper  their  action  except  those  regulations  which  each  mining  camp 
adopted  for  the  security  of  the  common  interests  of  its  members.^ 

Shortly  after  the  admission  of  California  into  the  Union  in  1850  the 
question  of  the  advisabihty  of  free  mining  was  debated  on  the  floor  of  the 
Senate  by  Fremont,  Benton,  Seward,  and  others,  and  the  general  feeling 


'  Wallace's  Reports,  United  States  Supreme  Court,  Vol.  Ill,  Appendix  No.  1,  p.  100  ;   William  M.  Stewart. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  43 

appeared  to  be  in  favor  of  unrestricted  liberty,  though  it  was  expressed 
by  no  formal  resolution.  A  bill  introduced  by  Fremont,  to  establish  a 
system  of  police  regulations  in  the  mining  districts  and  imposing  a  small 
tax  on  the  miners  to  defray  the  incident  expenses,  passed  the  Senate,  but 
was  lost  in  the  House  from  want  of  time  for  its  consideration.  Before 
the  next  session  the  Californian  miners  had  formed  rules  for  their  own 
.  government  and  protection,  which  rendered  Fremont's  bill  unnecessary, 
and  Congress  took  no  further  action  in  the  matter. 

The  Californian  legislature,  in  1851,  after  a  careful  investigation  of 
the  subject,  declared  that  the  rules  and  regulations  of  the  different  mining 
districts  might  be  offered  in  evidence  in  all  controversies  respecting  mining 
claims,  and  should  govern  the  decision  of  the  action  when  not  in  conflict 
with  the  constitution  or  laws  of  the  State  or  of  the  United  States.  The 
territorial  legislature  of  Utah  had  given  the  question  no  consideration, 
and  the  miners  at  Gold  Hill,  in  1859,  believed  themselves  free  to  follow 
the  example  of  the  Californian  mining  towns  and  adopt  any  rules  for  their 
own  government  and  for  the  development  of  the  mining  industries  of  the 
district  which  did  not  conflict  with  the  constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States  or  of  the  Territory.  In  reality,  constitutional  provisions  and  organic 
acts  meant  little  or  nothing  to  them,  but  they  framed  local  regulations  to 
suit  their  own  ideas  of  equity,  careless  of  possible  flaws.  Their  civil  or 
police  regulations  have  already  been  given ;  the  rules  adopted  governing 
the  location  and  development  of  mining  claims  are  as  follows : 

Article  1.  There  shall  be  elected  one  Justice  of  the  Peace,  one  Constable,  and  one 
Eecordei-  of  this  district  for  the  term  of  six  months. 

Article  4.  The  duty  of  the  Recorder  shall  be  to  keep  in  a  well-bound  book  a  record 
of  all  claims  which  may  be  presented  for  record,  with  the  names  of  the  parties  locating 
or  purchasing,  the  number  of  feet,  where  situated,  and  the  date  of  location  or  purchase ; 
also  to  return  a  certificate  for  such  claim  or  claims. 

Sec.  7.  Evidence  of  record  of  claims  shall  be  considered  title  in  preference  to 
claims  that  are  not  recorded;  nor  shall  the  recorder  record  more  than  one  hill,  dry  gulch, 
or  ravine  cluim  in  the  name  of  an  individual  unless  the  same  has  been  purchased. 

Sec.  8.  All  claims  shall  be  properly  defined  by  a  stake  at  each  end  of  the  claim, 
with  the  number  of  members  forming  said  company  and  the  number  of  feet  owned. 

Sec.  9.  All  claims  shall  be  worked  or  the  notice  renewed  in  sixty  days  from  the 
date  of  record,  and  no  claim  shall  exceed  200  feet  square,  hill  claims  excepted,  which  may 
be  reduced  to  50  feet  front. 


44  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

Sec.  10.  The  Recorder  shall  be  allowed  the  sum  of  twenty-five  cents  for  recording 
the  claim  of  each  individual  or  member  of  a  company. 

Sec.  11.  No  Chinaman  shall  be  allowed  to  hold  a  claim  in  this  district. 

Sec.  12.  This  district  shall  include  all  the  territory  from  the  meridian  of  Johntown 
to  Steamboat  Valley. 

Sec.  13.  All  quartz  claims  shall  not  exceed  300  feet  in  length,  including  the  depths 
and  spurs. 

Sec.  14.  Any  person  or  persons  discovering  a  quartz  vein  shall  be  entitled  to  an 
extra  claim  on  all  veins  he  or  they  may  discover. 

Sec.  15.  All  persons  holding  quartz  claims  shall  actually  work  to  the  amount  of 
$15  to  the  share  within  ninety  days  from  the  time  of  locating. 

Sec.  16.  All  persons  holding  quartz  claims  and  complying  with  section  15  shall 
hold  the  same  for  the  term  of  eighteen  months  as  actual  property. 

Sec.  17.  All  quartz  claims  shall  be  duly  recorded  within  thirty  days  from  the  time 
of  locating. 

Sec.  18.  No  person  shall  locate  more  than  one  claim  on  a  vein  discovered. 

Sec.  19.  Any  and  all  persons  locating  for  mining  purposes  shall  have  the  .same  duly 
recorded  within  ten  days  from  the  time  of  locating. 

Sec.  20.  Resolved,  That  the  above  rules  and  regulations  shall  be  signed  by  the  cit- 
izens of  this  district  and  all  who  may  locate  hereafter.' 

In  accordance  with  these  regulations  a  justice  of  the  peace  and  con- 
stable were  duly  elected.  The  important  office  of  recorder  was  filled  by 
the  appointment  of  the  blacksmith  of  the  camp,  John  A.  Houseworth. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  point  out  the  evident  ambiguities  and  flaws  in 
this  code.  Under  the  most  favorable  conditions  its  execution  would  have 
given  rise  to  incessant  conflicts.  Law  making  is,  at  best,  a  tentative  pro- 
cess. A  new  law  is  always  an  uncertain  experiment,  and  ordinances  which 
have  been  approved  a  hundred  times  may  fail  at  the  next  trial  under  altered 
conditions.  The  mining  regulations  of  the  Gold  Hill  District  were  not 
only  framed  by  untrained  hands,  but  their  most  important  sections  were 
fashioned  under  a  grave  misapprehension. 

These  provisions  were  derived  in  substance  from  similar  codes  in 
operation  across  the  Sierras  governing  the  division  and  development  of 
narrow  gold-quartz  ledges  dipping  at  well-defined  angles  in  most  instances. 
It  was  believed  that  the  croppings  on  the  slope  of  the  Sun  Peak  were  the 
exposed  surfaces  of  similar  ledges  of  gold-bearing  quartz,  and  the  idea  that 
these  waving,  irregular,  broken  lines  of  rock  were  jutting  points  of  one 


'  Gold  Hill  Records. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  45 

and  the  same  lode  never  entered  the  minds  of  the  venturesome  law- 
makers ;  but  the  Procrustean  bed  having  once  been  made,  it  was  certain 
that  facts  would  be  lopped  off  and  strained  to  suit  the  original  theory. 
It  was  easier  to  make  the  bed  than  to  lie  in  it,  but  the  radical  error  in  its 
construction  was  discovered  too  late  for  correction. 

Inapplicable,  inadequate,  and  rudely  framed  as  were  the  laws  of  the 
district,  still  they  might  have  been  fairly  useful  if  their  provisions  had  been 
enforced,  but  the  easy-humored  carelessness  with  which  rule  after  rule 
Avas  broken  or  totally  ignored  would  be  amusing  if  its  consecjuences  were 
not  so  vexatious.  The  laws  were  passed  and  signed  by  the  citizens  of  the 
district  who  were  able  to  write,  but  this  action  was  apparently  intended  as 
a  concession  to  some  imagined  necessity  for  a  formal  prelude  to  their 
foray  upon  the  ledges — a  sop,  as  it  were,  to  an  invisible  dragon  of  legal 
fiction  guarding  the  golden  fleece.  When  by  a  semblance  of  law  the 
treasure  was  placed  in  their  hands  they  portioned  it  out  without  much 
regard  for  the  restrictions  imposed  by  their  formal  proclamation. 

Abundant  instances  might  be  cited  in  support  of  this  conclusion. 
Follow,  for  example,  the  record  of  the  locations  on  the  most  famous  half 
mile  of  the  lode,  used  in  evidence,  because  their  history  has  been  most 
accurately  determined  by  repeated  trials  and  decisions.  Refer  to  the 
claims  on  the  Comstock  which  have  been  acc[uired  by  the  Ophir,  Consoli- 
dated Virginia  and  California  Mining  Companies. 

On  the  day  after  the  adjournment  of  the  meeting  Comstock  and  his 
three  partners  placed  a  stake  on  the  line  of  their  croppings,  about  50  feet 
south  of  the  trench  dug  by  McLaughlin  and  O'Riley,  and  a  second  stake 
1,500  feet  north  of  the  first,  following  the  direction  of  their  ledge  as  nearly 
as  possible.^  So  far,  the  proceedings  were  in  accordance  with  the  law 
granting 300  feet  to  each  locator  and  an  additional  share  for  the  discovery. 
Section  4  of  these  mining  laws  requires  that  a  notice  shall  be  posted  on 
the  boundary  stake.  There  is  no  evidence  that  this  was  done,  but  with 
Comstock  as  herald  it  was  probably  superfluous.  Section  19  requires  that 
the  notice  of  location  should  be  duly  recorded  as  the  best  evidence  of  title. 
This  important  regulation  was  not  observed. 

'  James  A.  Corey. 


46  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

James  A.  Corey,  a  friend  of  Comstock,  was  permitted  to  inspect  the 
black  earth  seam  on  the  9th  of  June,  but  was  not  allotted  a  share  in  the 
new  claim  as  he  had  confidently  expected.'  He  consoled  himself  for  his 
disappointment  by  claiming  a  section  450  feet  long  on  the  ledge,  just  150 
feet  more  than  he  was  entitled  to  by  the  Gold  Hill  code.^  He  measured 
his  claim  by  pacing  off  what  he  supposed  to  be  450  feet,  but,  being 
naturally  anxious  not  to  underestimate  the  distance,  he  planted  his  bound- 
ary stake  about  600  feet  south  of  the  first  Comstock  stake  and  posted  on 
it  a  notice  of  his  claim.  Then  he  began  prospecting  near  the  north  end 
of  his  claim,  but  after  a  day  or  two  was  interrupted  by  two  miners,  John 
Bishop  and  Horatio  B.  Camp,  who  notified  him  that  the  ground  on  which 
he  was  working  belonged  to  them  by  virtue  of  a  prior  surface  location.' 

The  sole  evidence  of  this  pretended  location  Avas  their  own  assertion, 
but  as  it  was  a  plain  case  of  compromise  or  fight,  Corey  gave  them  a  share 
of  his  ground.  How  much  did  he  give  them?  From  the  record  in  the 
Gold  Hill  register*  it  would  seem  that  each  received  150  feet,  but  Corey 
afterwards  swore  that  each  received  only  an  undivided  one-third  interest 
in  the  north  150  feet.®  Bishop  swore  to  the  same  effect  in  April,  1864, 
and  received  $400  for  his  expenses  as  witness,  when  Camp  attempted  to 
assert  his  right  to  the  claim  as  recorded.^  In  1872,  however,  Bishop  forgot 
his  oath  taken  eight  years  before,  as  well  as  a  quit-claim  deed  which  he 
had  signed,  and  claimed  a  share  of  150  feet,  as  Camp  had  done.  These 
suits  were  lost ;  yet,  by  the  provisions  of  section  7,  the  original  claims 
would  appear  well  grounded,  as  Corey  did  not  see  fit  to  record  his  own 
claim  of  450  feet,  or  to  protest  against  the  record  in  the  register.  This 
trivial  omission  on  his  part  and  the  clouded  title  thence  resulting  cost 
subsequent  purchasers  years  of  litigation  and  heavy  expense.  The  south- 
ern 150  feet  of  the  claim  as  paced  off  was  not  included  in  either  location, 

'  James  Corey,  March  29, 1877  ;  testimony  under  oath ;  S.  C.  Barnes  et  al.  vs.  California  Mining  Company 
2  James  A.  Corey,  March  29,  1877. 

^  John  Bishop,  March  23,  1877  ;  S.  C.  Barnes  et  al.  vs.  California  Mining  Company. 
<Gold  Hill  Records,  Book  A,  No.  1,  p.  3. 
'James  A.  Corey,  March  29,  1877. 

^Thomas  Sunderland,  referee  in  case  of  Camp  vs.  California  Mining  Company,  1864;  testimony  under 
oath,  April  2,  1877 ;  Lucien  Hermann,  March  31,  1877  ;  S.  C.  Barnes  et  al.  vs.  California  Mining  Company. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  47 

but  Camp  and  Bishop  took  possession  of  it  informally  and  divided  it  up 
afterwards  without  dispute. 

The  ledge  south  of  the  stake  planted  by  Corey  was  soon  covered  with 
a  line  of  overlapping  locations,  made  without  any  reference  to  the  "  well- 
bound  record  book.'"  Joseph  Webb  wanted  60  feet  of  ground  on  account 
of  a  "  hill  claim  "  which  he  had  located  in  the  neighborhood  before  the 
discovery  of  the  lode,  as  he  said.  Lee  James  and  John  Murphy  posted 
the  following  notice,  and  took  the  unusual  pains  of  recording  it :  ^ 

Notice 

That  we  the  undersigned  claim  600  feet  of  this  Quartz  Vein,  Commencing  at  the 
South  end  of  James  Cory  claim  and  running  South  600  feet  and  two  claims. 

LEE  JAMES. 
JNO.  MURPHY. 
Recorded  June  22,  '59. 

V.  A.  HOUSEWORTH  Recorder. 

John  D.  Winters  followed  suit  with  his  notice  :^ 

Notice 

That  I  the  undersigned  claim-claim  one  claim  on  this  Quartz  Veim  of  300  feet, 
commencing  with  the  south  end  of  Lee  James  &  Co.  and  running  south  300  feet  to 

the  line  and  one  claim. 

JNO.  D.  WINTERS. 
Recorded  June  22,  '59. 

V.  A.  HOUSEWORTH  Recorder. 

Prior  to  these  three  notices,  however,  Alexander  G.  White,  Joseph  M. 
Kirby,  and  A.  G.  Hammack  had  acquired  100  feet  of  the  ledge,  as  they 
declared,  by  a  location  made  on  the  15th  of  the  preceding  month,  attested 
as  follows : 

Notice  ^ 

That  we  the  undersign  do  claim  100    feet  wide    running  up  the  hill  400  feet 
including  quartz  and  surface  from  notice  near  a  ceder  stump  May  15,  1859. 
This  claim  lies  south  of  Penrod  and  Comsock  claim  Six-mile  Caflon. 

A.  WHITE. 
JOS.  CURBY. 
A.  G.  HAMACK. 
Recorded  June  27,  '59. 
1 

'  Gold  Hill  Kecords,  Book  A,  p.  4.  =  Gold  Hill  Records,  Book  A.  p.  4. 

3  Gold  Hill  Records,  Book  A,  Vol.  1,  p.  14. 


48  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  futility  of  the  formal  code  of  mining  laws  adopted  June  11th  is 
sufficiently  apparent  from  the  single  fact  that  this  vague  hill-claim  notice, 
in  all  probability  manufactured  and  ante-dated  to  suit  the  occasion,  was 
regarded  as  establishing  the  claim  of  White,  Kii'by,  and  Hammack  to  a 
section  of  the  newly-discovered  lode. 

Four  prospectors,  called  collectively  Sides  &  Co.,  took  500  feet  on  the 

line  of  the  supposed  lode  or  lodes  next  to  the  claim  of  Winters,^  calling 

attention  by  a  notice  to  the  fact — 

That  we,  the  undersigned,  do  claim  500  feet  commencing  at  J.  B.  Winters'  claim 
Running  South  Including  surface  and  Quartz  with  all  of  it  Dijsps  and  angles  sprs 

F.  B.  ABERNATHIE. 
P.  M.  BALDWIN. 
E.  BELCHER. 
R.  D.  SIDES. 
Recorded  June  23,  1859. 

V.  A.  HOUSEWORTH,  Recorder. 

But  when  the  claimants  came  to  take  possession  it  was  found  that 
while  nature  had  made  only  710  feet  of  ground  between  the  Corey  south 
stake  and  a  well-recognized  location  made  by  Alva  Gould,  James  Buchanan, 
and  Abe  Field,  June  23, 1859,  yet  they  had  taken  up  1,550  feet,  nearly  twice 
as  much  as  actually  existed.^  Accordingly,  in  the  early  part  of  July  there 
was  a  mustering  of  owners  and  a  compromise,  by  which  the  ground  was 
measured  off  by  means  of  a  rope  with  an  accuracy  which  satisfied  the 
disputants.  Joseph  Webb  was  granted  50  feet  measured  north  from  the 
Corey  stake,  apparently  by  consent  of  Corey,  Camp,  and  Bishop.  Lee 
James  and  John  Murphy  received  110  feet  lying  next  south.  Next  to 
this  claim  a  section  of  100  feet  was  assigned  to  White,  Hammack,  and 
Kirby,  while  John  D.  Winters  and  the  "Sides  Company"  were  allowed 
to  take  possession  of  the  remaining  500  feet.^  Webb  never  recorded  his 
"hill  claim"  or  his  assigned  portion  of  the  ledge,  which  neglect  on  his 
part  was  the  main  cause  of  a  most  costly  lawsuit.  The  records  of  the 
other  claimants  have  been  given,  but  as  their  subsequent  agreement 
was  simply  a  parol  one,  accompanied   by  delivery  of   possession,  the 

'  Gold  Hill  Records,  Book  A,  p.  6.  ^Qold  Hill  Records,  Book  A,  p.  16. 

'  Alexander  G.  White,  testimony  under  oath;  Joseph  M.  Kirby,  testimony  under  oath ;  George  W.  Kinney 
et  al.  vs.  The  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company  et  al. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE.  49 

title  of  assignees  was  contested  in  the  courts   even   up   to   the  present 
year,  1881. 

This  is  only  one  of  a  thousand  instances  which  might  be  cited  to 
show  the  characteristic  negligence  of  the  prospectors  or  their  wilful  disre- 
gard for  their  own  laws  and  regulations.  Some  allowance  may  be  made 
for  their  ignorance  and  for  an  easy-natured  carelessness  inbred  by  their 
roving  and  reckless  habits  of  life,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  pretended 
thoughtlessness  was  often  a  mask  for  fraud  and  greediness. 

If  a  locator  found  rich  croppings  or  a  promising  ledge,  he  was  not 
anxious  to  define  his  boundary  lines  by  stakes  until  he  had  satisfied  him- 
self of  the  extent  and  probable  dip  of  his  ore  body,  for  if  he  placed  his 
terminal  stakes  before  he  had  traced  the  line  of  his  ledge  and  explored 
his  seam  of  ore,  he  might  inadvertently  cut  short  his  own  bonanza.  So 
he  was  in  no  hurry  to  mark  his  section,  and  his  neighbors  were  equally 
tardy.  Notice  after  notice  would  be  posted  claiming  the  allotted  number 
of  feet  on  a  ledge,  but  never  defining  the  precise  position  of  the  locations, 
as  every  man  naturally  wished  to  cut  off  the  richest  slice  of  the  prospective 
bonanza  and  was  not  disposed  to  cut  the  loaf  until  he  knew  its  contents. 
If  his  neighbor  found  ore  and  he  did  not,  he  was  thus  prepared  to  plant 
his  boundary  stakes  in  that  neighbor's  ground,  and  by  hook  or  crook 
obtain  a  share  of  the  treasure.  This  humanly  covetous  spirit  might,  to 
be  sure,  overreach  itself.  The  bonanza  might  be  in  his  own  ground  and 
not  in  his  neighbor's,  when  he  might  expect  to  see  hungry  claimants 
swooping  down  on  his  undefined  plot  of  ground  like  a  swarm  of  vultures; 
still  by  his  estimate  of  chances  he  was  ready  to  take  this  risk,  relying  on 
his  own  quickness  to  secure  the  first  grasp  of  the  prize  and  on  the  shot- 
guns of  his  friends  to  insure  its  enjoyment. 

If  he  was  reluctant  to  post  stakes  therefore,  as  required  by  the  laws, 
he  was  still  more  unwilling  to  limit  his  chances  further  by  recording  a 
notice  defining  his  boundaries.  Stakes  could  be  pulled  up  and  thrown 
away,  but  records  were  not  so  easily  got  rid  of.  A  certificate  of  location 
filed  by  himself  might  prove  a  disagreeable  witness  hereafter,  and  he  was 
in  no  haste  to  forge  weapons  which  could  be  used  against  himself.  So 
(4  H  c) 


50  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

his  monuments  or  boundary  stakes,  if  fixed  at  all,  were  light  pine  posts 
(4  by  4  inches  usually),^  and  his  notices,  if  recorded  at  all,  were  still  more 
flimsy  in  character. 

The  prospectors  in  the  Washoe  district  acted  simply  as  prospectors  do 
now  and  have  done,  as  a  class,  from  time  immemorial.  They  were  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  others.  "I  have  always  been  struck,"  wrote  Don 
Joseph  Saenz,  "with  the  objection  which  miners  seem  to  have  against 
getting  their  mines  measured  out  until  they  are  required  to  do  so  by 
neighboring  proprietors,"  ^  and  Gamboa,  after  setting  forth  most  earnestly 
the  necessity  of  scrupulously  determining  and  guarding  the  boundaries  of 
mineSj^adds:  "Practice,  however,  in  mining  districts  will  be  found  to  be 
much  the  reverse  of  this,  for  either  from  sloth  and  idleness  or  from  covet- 
ous and  improper  motives,  the  measuring  out  of  the  boundaries  of  mines 
is  neglected,  with  the  connivance  of  those  whose  duty  it  is  to  scrutinize 
into  and  punish  the  omission,  until  the  discovery  of  some  great  bonanza 
or  the  occurrence  of  a  communication  between  different  mines  arouses  the 
feehng  of  self-interest,  and  litigation  and  contention  as  to  the  boundaries 
are  the  consequences,  which  would  have  been  prevented  had  the  alterna- 
tive so  properly  directed  by  the  crown  ordinance  (XXVI)  of  measuring 
out  the  mines  and  setting  up  regular  landmarks  at  once  been  adopted." 

In  regard  to  registration  of  notices  of  discovery  and  location,  the  same 
writer  is  if  possible  more  emphatic* 

By  the  royal  ordinance  XVII  a  discoverer  must  register  his  mine 
within  twenty  days  after  discovering  or  finding  the  ore  before  the  mining 
justice  of  the  district,  and  must  produce  the  ore  which  he  has  found. 
The  register  must  describe  the  person  registering  and  the  place  where 
the  ore  is  situate.  Within  sixty  days  a  person  making  registry  must 
send  such  authenticated  copy  to  the  administrator  general  or  to  the 
administrator  of  the  department  in  which  the  mine  is  located,  and  if  such 
registry  is  not  made  in  the  manner  described,  any  person  may  register  such 


'  Testimony  of  I.  E.  James,  surveyor  of  Comstock  Ledge  in  August,  1860.     G.  W.  Kiuuey  et  al.  va.  Con- 
solidated Virginia  Mining  Company,  1877. 

^  Ti-atado  de  las  medidas  de  minas,  chap.  6,  n.  13. 

3  Gamboa'a  Commentaries,  Heatbfield's  Translation,  vol.  1,  p.  326. 

■•  Gamboa'a  Commentaries,  vol.  1,  p.  139,  Ordinance  XVII. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  61 

mine  and  thereby  have  and  acquire  all  the  rights  of  the  discoverer.  In 
the  notice  of  registry  all  mines  must  have  some  determinate  limits  or 
boundaries  assigned  to  them/  and  all  sales,  contracts,  and  other  docu- 
ments of  title  must  be  made  to  appear  in  the  registry  book  or  archive/  in 
which  not  only  purchase  deeds,  but  all  alterations  of  boundaries  must  be 
entered.^  Every  province  shall  have  a  mining  notary  and  deputies.  The 
chief  must  reside  in  the  principal  mining  district,  and  all  registries  must  be 
ratified  before  him  within  sixty  days.*  Even  the  very  hour  of  making  the 
registration  should  be  noted/  and  no  pretense  of  being  impeded  by  distance, 
illness,  or  the  like  should  be  admitted  by  way  of  excuse  for  not  making 
registry,"  as  such  obstacles  can  always  be  overcome  by  diligence,  and  a 
servant  or  deputy  might,  at  any  rate,  be  sent  with  the  ore  if  the  locator 
was  really  unable  to  go  himself. 

The  ordinances  of  Peru  allowed  thirty  days  in  which  to  make  the 
registry  under  penalty  of  forfeiture  for  non-compliance  with  the  requiS'i- 
tion.  Only  two  exceptions  to  this  rule  were  noted :  (1)  when  a  person 
was  prevented  by  hostile  force  from  making  such  registry,  the  situation 
of  the  mine  being  at  the  same  time  very  remote  from  the  place  of  regis- 
tration; (2)  when  the  locators  were  Indians,  allowance  being  made  for 
the  natural  ignorance  of  these  people/ 

If  these  explicit  injunctions  and  ordinances  were  necessary  in  regu- 
lating mine  locations  in  districts  where  the  chances  of  confusion  and 
disputes  were  slight  compared  with  those  certain  to  arise  at  the  Washoe 
mines,  how  much  more  essential  was  it  that  the  mining  laws  of  the  Gold 
Hill  district  should  be  carefully  drawn  and  rigidly  enforced.  In  Mexico 
and  Peru  rectangular  locations  were  alone  permitted,  and  the  miner  was 
confined  within  planes  drawn  perpendicularly  to  his  surface  boundary 
lines,  but  in  the  Gold  Hill  district  each  locator  held  a  section  of  a  ledge  with 
all  its  uncounted  "  depths  and  spurs,"  and  enjoyed  the  right  of  following 
its  course  wherever  it  extended  and  the  certainty  that  he  would  come 
into  collision  with  his  neighbors  on  one  side  of  his  line  or  the  other. 

'Heathfield'g  Translation,  Gamboa's  Commentaries,  vol.  1,  p.  143. 

«Ibid.,  p.  147.  3 Ibid.,  p.  147.  ■'Ibid.,  p.  147. 

•Ibid.,  p.  148.  'Ibid.,  p.  150.  'Ibid.,  p.  150.  * 


52  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Moreover,  the  so-called  Comstock  ledge  had  the  unfortunate  peculiarity 
of  first  inclining  to  the  west  and  then  back  toward  the  east,  so  that  the 
chances  of  collision  were  doubled. 

Small  wonder  was  it,  therefore,  that  when  Ross  Browne  arrived  in 
the  district  during  the  summer  of  1860  he  found  the  ledge,  as  he  expressed 
it  humorously,  "  in  a  mess  of  confusion."  ^  Its  share-holders  had  the  most 
enlarged  views  of  its  dips,  spurs,  and  angles,  but  those  who  struck  crop- 
pings  above  or  below  were  equally  liberal  in  their  notions.  "  Everybody's 
spurs  were  running  into  everybody  else's  angles.  The  Cedar  Hill  Com- 
pany was  spurring  the  Miller  Company ;  the  Virginia  Ledge  was  spurring 
the  Continuation ;  the  Dow  Company  was  spurring  the  Billy  Chollar,  etc. 
It  was  a  free  fight  all  round." 

In  Mexico  and  Peru  also,  the  allowance  of  a  specified  number  of  varas 
for  the  length  of  a  claim  could  not  be  misinterpreted.  In  the  Gold  Hill 
Mining  District  a  locator  was  allowed  "  300  feet  in  length,"  and  he  was  really 
at  a  loss  to  know  whether  this  article  gave  him  the  ledge  with  all  its 
turns  and  twists  within  given  boundaries  300  feet  apart  in  a  straight  line, 
or  whether  he  was  obliged  to  lay  out  his  300  feet  on  the  curving  line  of  the 
ledge-croppings.  Of  course,  in  the  surveys  of  mine  claims  made  by 
James  E.  Freeman,  I.  E.  James  and  others,  for  various  mining  companies, 
a  base-line  was  determined  which  was  cut  by  side  or  end-lines  at  right 
angles,  but  these  determinations  were  of  later  date  than  the  early  loca- 
tions, when  many  of  the  prospectors  traced  up,  as  well  as  they  could,  the 
supposed  winding  courses  of  their  ledges  by  isolated  croppings,  measuring 
their  allotted  number  of  feet  by  a  rope  from  point  to  point  or  by  pacing 
off  the  distance.^  This  practice,  coupled  with  the  neglect  to  stake  off 
their  claims  properly,  produced  such  collisions  as  were  noted  in  the  loca- 
tions of  Webb,  Murphy,  White,  Winters,  and  Sides,  before  cited. 

Again,  in  Mexico  and  Peru  the  registrars  were  State  officers  of  pre- 
sumed competence,  who  kept  carefully  the  records  intrusted  to  them  and 
filed  authenticated  copies  with  the  administrator  general.^    In  the  Gold 


'  J.  Ross  Browne,  "A  Peep  at  Washoe." 

2  George  R.  Wells,  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  trustee  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1878,  who  had 
occasion  to  make  careful  investigation  of  the  methods  adopted  by  the  early  locators. 
"    '  Ordinance  XVII. 


THE  DISCOVEEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  53 

Hill  Mining  District,  where  the  early  locations  on  the  line  of  the  Comstock 
ledge  were  made,  the  recorder  was  an  uneducated  blacksmith  and  the 
transcripts  of  notices  decidedly  untrustworthy. 

The  book  which  is  handed  down  to  the  present  time  as  containing 
copies  of  original  notices  of  location  made  by  Houseworth  deserves  pres- 
ervation as  a  relic  of  mining  customs  twenty  years  ago,  but  it  is  surprising 
that  it  should  ever  be  cited  as  an  authoritative  record.  Even  if  it  contains 
the  earliest  transcripts,  which  is  at  least  questionable — for  it  was  currently 
reported  in  1860  that  the  first  records  were  made  on  loose  sheets  of  paper, 
of  which  some  were  lost  and  some  destroyed^ — yet  it  shows  such  marks 
of  carelessness,  erasures,  irregular  additions,  and  it  is  scarcely  unwarrant- 
able to  add,  positive  fraud,  that  its  legal  value  is  materially  diminished. 

The  first  record  of  ledge  location  in  the  book,  for  instance,  is  that  of 
the  Sierra  Nevada  Mining  Company,  so  called,  on  the  22d  of  June,  1859.^ 
The  tattered  and  dirty  page  of  the  record  book  has  been  repaired  and 
preserved  with  unusual  care.  Attested  copies  have  been  taken  of  this 
notice  of  location,  and  a/ac  simile  by  the  photographic  process  has  even 
been  obtained;  yet  the  record  as  it  stands  is  hardly  worth  preserving,  for 
it  has  unquestionably  been  antedated  at  the  outset  and  mischievously 
tampered  with  afterward.  Walsh,  Woodworth,  and  others  whose  names 
are  mentioned  did  not  arrive  on  the  ground  until  the  1st  of  July,  1859,* 
and  the  location  in  question  was  not  made  until  the  following  day  (July  2, 
1859)  .*  The  entries  which  follow  for  several  pages  on  the  record-book 
were  evidently  made  by  the  same  recorder  and  are  signed  V.  A.  House- 
worth,  but  if  Houseworth  recorded  these  notices  he  certainly  did  not 
record  others  on  subsequent  pages  which  appear  over  the  same  signature. 
The  book  was  kept  by  the  recorder  in  a  saloon,  where  it  lay  on  a  shelf 
behind  the  bar,  and  was  taken  up  by  any  one  who  wished  to  alter  the 
course  of  his  boundary  lines  or  make  such  insertions  as  might  please 
him.     When  the  book  was  not  wanted  for  this  use  the  miners  lounging 

1  William  M.  Stewart,  first  Senator  from  Nevada,  and  many  others. 

2  G.  H.  E.,  Book  A,  p.  1.  s  Joseph  Woodworth,  December  1,  1879. 

■•Joseph  Woodworth,  December  1,  1879;  James  Walsh,  March  31,  1877;  sworn  testimony,  S.  C.  Barnes 
et  al.  vs.  California  Mining  Company;  Nevada  Journal,  Jnly  1,  18.59  :  "  Jndge  Walsh,  of  Grass  Valley,  left  that 
town  June  29  for  the  other  side  of  the  mountains." 


54  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

about  the  saloon  were  in  the  habit  of  using  it  as  a  harmless  club  in  the 
excess  of  their  good  fellowship/ 

It  is  certainly  fortunate  that  parol  agreements  accompanied  by  delivery 
of  possession  have  been  recognized  as  a  lawful  mode  of  passing  title,"  for 
possession  is  far  better  evidence  of  title  than  such  records  as  these. 

While  Corey  and  other  prospectors  were  making  locations  on  the 
line  of  the  lode,  the  cut  in  the  claim  of  McLaughlin  and  O'Riley  was 
slowly  opened.  The  prospectors  noticed  the  bits  of  black  rock  which  were 
mixed  with  the  surface  sand,  but  had  no  idea  of  their  value  and  threw 
them  away  with  the  other  screenings  from  their  rocker  sieve.  At  a  depth 
of  four  feet  from  the  surface  a  seam  of  this  black  rock  was  uncovered 
from  one  to  three  inches  in  width,  but  increasing  in  size  as  its  downward 
course  was  traced.^*  It  was  a  novel  sight  at  first  to  the  miners,  but  they 
soon  became  tired  of  speculating  about  it  and  looked  upon  it  as  a 
hindrance  to  their  work. 

As  they  dug  their  hole  deeper  a  harder  stratum  of  earth  was  cut 
which  could  not  be  washed  to  advantage  in  rockers.*  They  had  crushed 
the  clotted  masses  with  picks  and  sledge  hammers,  but  the  work  was  too 
laborious  and  they  determined  to  procure  an  arrastra.  Accordingly,  on 
June  24,  Joseph  A.  Osborn  and  John  D.  Winters,  jr.,  were  given  a  two- 
sixth  undivided  interest  in  1,400  feet  of  the  Comstock  claim  in  considera- 
tion for  the  supply  of  two  arrastras  and  two  horses  or  mules  for  the  use 
of  Comstock  and  his  partners.^  The  remaining  100  feet  of  the  claim  as 
originally  located  was  assigned  to  Comstock  and  Penrod,  as  had  been 
agreed  upon,  and  was  measured  off  from  a  point  200  feet  north  of  the 
south  boundary  stake  of  the  claim. 

With  the  aid  of  these  arrastras  the  partners  began  to  make  large 
profits,  though  as  yet  they  had  neglected  the  black  rock  wedge  in  the 
centre  of  their  claim  as  worthless  to  them.  A  few  sample  pieces  of  this 
seam  were  carried  to  Placerville,  Cal.,  however,  by  curious  visitors,  and 


'  William  Wright,  "Big  Bonauza,"  p.  62. 

2  Hon.  Lorenzo  Sawyer,  Judge  United  States  Circuit  Court ;  George  W.  Kinney  et  al.  vs.  Consolidated 
Virginia  Mining  Company ;  420  Mining  Company  vs.  Bullion  Mining  Company.— (3  Sawyer,  658, 609.) 

3Jameb  Walsh,  San  Francisco,  March  22,  1881.  •'William  Wright,  "Big  Bonanza,"  p.  56. 

'Gold  Hill  Records,  Book  A,  p.  7. 


THE  DISCOVERY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE.  66 

a  ranchman  of  Truckee  River  Meadows,  B.  A.  Harrison,  gave  a  fragment 
of  the  rock  to  Melville  Atwood,  a  skillful  assayer,  for  test  June  27,  1859. 
The  result  of  his  assay  showed  a  value  per  ton  of  $3,000  in  silver  and 
|876  in  gold.^  The  surprising  richness  of  this  sample  was  made  known 
to  James  AValsh  and  Joseph  Woodworth  of  Grass  Valley,  Cal.,  who  set  out 
at  once  for  the  new  district  in  company  with  the  ranchman  Harrison  and 
J.  F.  Stone.'  From  the  arrival  of  this  party  at  Gold  Hill,  July  1,  1859, 
the  development  of  the  great  silver  deposits  of  the  Comstock  Lode  may 
be  said  to  date,  for  the  yellowish  sand  was  then  ascertained  to  be  a  rich 
chloride  of  silver  ore,  and  the  black  rock  was  found  to  be  a  well-defined 
vein  of  silver  sulphurets.^ 


•  Sworn  statements  of  B.  A.  Harrison,  (February  3,  1870),  and  Melville  Atwood,  (February  1, 1861),  in 
possession  of  Almarin  B.  Paul,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

■'  James  Walsh,  Joseph  Woodworth  ;  Nevada  Journal,  July  1, 1859 ;  Sacramento  Union,  July  2, 1859. 
'James  Walsh. 


CHAPTER  IV.      . 

THE    MINING   CAMP. 

The  surface  of  the  lode  had  been  barely  scratched  at  Gold  Hill  and 
on  the  northern  claims,  but  a  ledge  of  silver  ore  had  been  uncovered 
beyond  question.  The  early  prospectors  had  done  their  part  by  ignorantly 
revealing  the  existence  of  this  vein.  Men  of  a  different  stamp  were  needed 
to  take  up  the  work  at  this  point  and  carry  it  on  to  a  successful  comple- 
tion. 

Examine  the  true  proportions  of  the  work  undertaken  in  1859.  The 
task  presented  to  capital  and  labor  was  the  development  of  a  silver  lode 
cropping  out  on  the  slope  of  a  barren  mountain  more  than  a  mile  above 
the  level  of  the  sea.^  North,  east,  and  south  the  mountain  was  surrounded 
by  deserts.  West  lay  the  white  capped  range  of  the  Sierras,  a  barrier  pene- 
trable only  through  a  few  steep  passes  blocked  with  snow  during  the 
winter  months,  which  led  over  its  summit  and  down  the  western  slope  to 
the  young  cities  of  California. 

The  range,  in  the  heart  of  which  the  lode  was  placed,  was  a  lumpish 
ridge  of  discolored  rocks  and  earth,  partly  covered  but  not  concealed  by 
underbrush  and  scrawny  cedars.  During  the  dry  season  no  water  flowed 
down  into  its  ravines,  and  in  the  spring  only  meager  brooks  ran  through 
the  main  canons.  On  its  parched  and  rocky  slopes  no  vegetation  could 
flourish  except  the  indomitable  sage-brush  "that  covers  the  desert  like  a 

coat  of  hair."^ 

If  a  city  was  to  be  built  on  the  line  of  the  lode,  it  must  be  a  foreign 
creation.  Water  must  be  made  to  flow  from  the  rocks  or  conducted  from 
distant  lakes;  roads  must  be  cut  and  blasted  through  the  caiions  and 
along  the  edge  of  mountain  precipices;  the  frame-work  of  the  houses  and 


(56) 


'  Ledge  croppings  .ibout  6,400  feet  above  sea-level. 
=  "The  Arizoiiian,"  Joaquin  Miller. 


THE  MINING  CAMP.  57 

the  timber  used  in  the  mines  must  be  cut  from  the  trees  of  the  Sierras 
and  dragged  up  to  the  mountain  camp;  food,  clothing,  tools,  and  sup- 
plies of  all  kinds  must  be  transported  by  slow  and  costly  methods  from 
the  Pacific  sea-board. 

The  Spatiish  proverb,  quoted  by  the  peon  miners  in  1850,  is  not 
complete.  Not  only  a  gold  mine  was  requisite  to  work  a  mine  of  silver 
such  as  this,  but  energy  incessant  and  untiring,  faith  which  no  discour- 
agements could  shake,  and  skill  born  of  years  of  varied  experience. 
California  furnished  the  men,  the  methods,  and  the  means. 

Prosp'ectors  began  to  flock  to  the  new  camp  as  soon  as  the  news  of  the 
discovery  of  silver  was  announced,^  but  the  great  majority  of  them  knew 
nothing  of  the  characteristics  of  silver  ledges,  and  croppings  of  barren 
rock  of  any  description  were  equally  as  valuable  to  their  ignorant  eyes. 
The  blopes  of  the  Sun  Peak  and  the  contiguous  hills  were  soon  covered 
with  stakes  and  rudely  scrawled  notices  of  location,  and  later  the  moun- 
tain district  for  miles  around  was  claimed  by  a  constantly  increasing  and 
never-satisfied  swarm.  When  the  croppings  were  taken  up,  pits  were 
sunk  a  few  feet  in  the  ground,  and  as  soon  as  the  bed-rock  of  the  moun- 
tains was  reached  "blind  ledges,"  so-called,  would  be  located  and  held 
without  an  attempt  often  to  prospect  further.^ 

The  little  Johntown  colony  was  soon  merged  in  this  stream  of  fortune 
hunters.  Rough-haired  mustangs,  gaunt  mules,  and  sure-footed  little 
"burros"  climbed  the  Sierras  loaded  with  stacks  of  blankets,  bacon,  flour, 
kettles,  pans,  picks,  shovels,  and  other  articles  of  a  miner's  outfit.  The 
ravines  and  brown  hillsides  were  dotted  with  a  restless  swarm.  Thin 
wreathes  of  smoke  rose  from  hundreds  of  little  camp-fires  on  the  hills, 
and  the  sharp  strokes  of  falling  picks  startled  the  lizards  from  their  hid- 
ing places  in  the  rocks. 

Little  work  except  prospecting  was  done  during  the  summer  and  fall 
of  1859,  but  the  Gold  Hill  claims  taken  up  by  Finney  and  his  companions  in 
January  were  steadily  opened  up  and  their  product  constantly  increased. 

^San  Juan  Press,  July,  1859 ;  Sacramento  Union,  July  26,1859;  Marysville  Democrat,  July  26, 18E9; 
Sacramento  Union,  July  28, 1859. 

-  Sacramento  Union,  September  13,  1859. 


58  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  only  other  productive  claims  of  importance  were  those  located  by 
by  Comstock  and  his  partners  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sun  Peak,  and 
the  claim  of  Corey  lying  next  their  boundary  on  the  south.^ 

Comstock  was  so  grasping  in  his  methods  of  acquisition  that  it  was 
natural  to  suppose  that  he  would  show  equal  selfishness  in  managing  his 
claim  and  hoarding  his  gains.  On  the  contrary,  after  attaining  his  point 
he  seemed  to  care  little  about  making  the  most  of  his  good  fortune.^  He 
preferred  to  talk  by  the  hour  to  any  listener  of  the  richness  and  extent  of 
the  mineral  deposits  in  the  range  and  the  future  greatness  of  the  city 
which  he  foresaw  would  be  built  up  in  the  mountains.  Visionary  and 
thriftless,  he  at  once  magnified  and  belittled  his  own  possessions. 
Although  proclaiming  in  boastful  vagaries  the  value  of  his  pretended  dis- 
covery, he  was  actually  persuaded  to  make  over  his  interest  in  the  new 
ledge  to  Herman  Camp,  a  shrewd  speculator,  without  any  tangible  consid- 
eration.^ The  deed  of  transfer  was  formally  drawn  and  signed,  but  Com- 
stock was  so  unmercifully  laughed  at  when  his  action  was  known  that  he 
repented  and  bethought  himself  how  he  might  get  his  mine  back  again. 
His  method  was  a  simple  one.  Camp  was  induced  to  allow  a  jury  of 
miners  to  sit  in  judgment  upon  the  validity  of  his  deed  from  Comstock. 
This  jury  was  composed  of  Comstock's  friends  and  companions,  who  had 
indistinct  notions  of  proceedings  in  equity,  but  a  clearly  defined  dislike  to 
the  newcomers  from  California  who  were  fast  taking  the  control  of  the 
district  out  of  their  hands.  Consequently,  after  a  short  deliberation  they 
decided  to  tear  up  the  deed,  which  was  done  with  all  due  gravity,  in  spite 
of  the  protest  of  the  luckless  assignee. 

Comstock  did  not  long  keep  possession  of  the  claim  so  easily  regained. 
Mr.  James  Walsh,  one  of  the  party  which  came  to  the  mines  from  Grass 
Valley  in  July,  had  been  quietly  testing  the  silver  ore  of  the  ledge  and  had 
satisfied  himself  fully  of  its  remarkable  richness.*  He  obtained  permission 
from  Comstock  and  his  partners  to  send  a  sample  sack  of  the  black  sul- 


'  Sacramento  Union,  October  25,  1859;  La  Porte  Mountain  Messenger,  October  22,  1859. 
^  Joseph  Woodwortli,  William  Wright,  Henry  de  Groot. 

2  Henry  de  Groot,  San  Francisco,  California;  Comstock  Papers,  No.  8;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press, 
November  4,  1876. 

<  James  Walsh;  Joseph  Woodworth. 


THE  MmiNG  CAMP.  59 

phuret  ore  to  Joseph  Mosheimer,^  a  leading  assayer  in  San  Francisco,  and 
later  two  larger  consignments  of  500  and  3,500  pounds.  Meanwhile  he 
obtained  a  bill  of  sale  of  Comstock's  interest  in  the  1,400  feet  of  the 
united  claims,  as  well  as  other  titles  of  less  value,  for  the  sum  of  $10  in 
hand  paid  and  the  agreement  to  pay  the  further  sum  of  $10,990  at  a  later 
date,  in  accordance  with  the  provisions  of  a  private  agreement.^ 

The  bargain  was  more  profitable  to  Comstock  than  his  former  one 
with  Camp,  but  the  terms  were  decidedly  favorable  to  Mr.  Walsh,  as  he 
had  an  opportunity  to  cancel  the  agreement  at  trifling  loss  to  himself  if 
the  product  of  the  ore  taken  from  the  claim  did  not  equal  his  expectations. 
The  sale  was  completed,  however,  and  additional  interests  were  bought  up 
as  well  by  Walsh  and  other  speculators,  so  that  before  the  spring  of  the 
following  year  (1860)  none  of  the  original  holders  of  the  first  location  on 
the  Comstock  ledge,  except  John  D.  Winters,  retained  their  shares.  Five- 
sixths  of  this  location,  or  1,166  feet,  were  sold  for  $70,601,  or  at  the  rate 
of  about  $60  per  foot.^  The  purchasers  and  subsequent  assignees,  in  order 
to  develop  their  claims,  united  with  John  D.  Winters  in  an  informal  asso- 
ciation, which  was  organized  under  a  corporation  charter  in  April,  1860, 
as  the  Ophir  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company. 

With  the  disposal  of  their  claims  Comstock  and  his  partners  fell  out 
of  their  chance  position  of  prominence  and  took  no  further  part  in  shaping 
the  history  of  the  lode.  The  little  fortunes  which  they  acquired  by  the 
sale  of  their  claims  were  wasted  rapidly  in  most  instances,  and  they  drifted 
back  into  the  congenial  pursuit  of  prospecting  for  ledges  and  placers, 
passing  so  completely  out  of  sight  that  the  manner  of  their  after  lives  and 
deaths  could  only  be  learned  by  extended  inquiry,  the  result  of  which  is 
briefly  outlined  in  another  connection. 

'J.  Mosheimer. 

'Virginia  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  pp.  75,76.     Deed  signed  August  12,  1859. 

'Virginia  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  pp.  1,77,128,253,337;  Book  B,  p.  100;  Book  C,  p.  100;  Book  D, 
p.  257.  Gold  Hill  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  pp.  5, 20 ;  Book  B,  p.  64.  J.  A.  Osborn  was  the  partner,  so-called, 
of  V.  A.  Houseworth,  and  assigned  to  him  "for  value  received"  (Gold  Hill  Records,  Book  A,  p.  10)  one-half  of 
his  interest  or  one-twelfth  of  1,400  feet  on  the  ledge.  Houseworth  assigned  one-twenty-fourth  of  1,400  feet  to 
B.  F.  Settle  (G.  H.  R.,  Book  A,  p.  5)  "for  $1  in  hand  paid,"  Strictly  speaking,  therefore,  uineteen-twenty- 
fourths  of  1,400  feet  were  sold  for  $70,000,  and  oue-twenty-fourtli  later,  together  with  one-tenth  of  1,500  feet 
known  as  the  Crown  Point  Ledge,  was  sold  for  |3,000. — (Deed  of  Settle  to  Winters  ;  Gold  Hill  Records,  Book 
A,  p.  20.) 


60  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Corey,  Bishop,  and  the  other  early  locators,  with  few  exceptions, 
followed  the  example  of  Comstock/  The  sums  which  they  received  for 
their  claims  were  not  large,  varying  from  a  few  hundred  to  a  few  thousand 
dollars,  but  to  prospectors  living  from  hand  to  mouth  the  bargains  were 
satisfactory,  as  they  assured  a  brief  season  at  least  of  idleness  and  pleasure; 
besides,  the  actual  worth  of  their  claims  was  undetermined.  They  knew 
nothing  of  underground  mining  or  of  the  methods  of  reduction  of  silver 
ores,  and  were  too  poor  or  too  impatient  to  undertake  any  systematic 
course  of  exploration.  Their  surface  working,  as  a  rule,  disclosed  nothing 
of  value,  and  if  they  were  on  the  line  of  a  silver  lode  there  was  as  yet  no 
knowledge  of  its  continuance  in  depth  or  of  the  distribution  of  its  ore 
bodies.  Weighing  the  chances  of  gain  and  loss  as  they  stood  in  1859,  the 
prospectors  had  no  cause  to  reproach  themselves  for  lack  of  foresight. 
The  Californian  speculators  were  venturesome  and  liberal  enough  in  their 
offers,  buying  in  the  dark  as  most  of  them  did,  and  more  than  one  was 
ridiculed  at  first  by  his  friends  in  San  Francisco  for  his  absurd  invest- 
ments. John  0.  Earl,  for  instance,  buying  O'Riley's  interest  for  |40,000, 
after  a  careful  examination  and  test  of  the  ore  in  a  claim  of  proved  value, 
was  regarded  as  a  wild  enthusiast,^  and  Alva  Gould,  who  sold  a  claim  on 
the  line  of  the  same  croppings  for  |450,^  was  not  laughed  at  as  he  rode 
down  Gold  Canon  at  night,  shouting  with  drunken  self-complacency,  "Oh, 
I've  fooled  the  Californian!"* 

At  the  close  of  the  year  1859  the  hill-inclosed  basin  at  the  foot  of 
the  Sun  Peak  presented  a  curious  picture.  The  ground  was  torn  up  in 
all  directions  with  shallow  cuts  and  pits ;  diminutive  adits  pierced  the 
hillsides  like  the  holes  of  sand  swallows  in  a  mound,  and  the  gray  carpet  of 
sage-brush  was  buried  under  unsightly  heaps  of  sand  and  crumbling  rocks. 

This  ignorant  expenditure  of  energy  had  accomplished  little  or  noth- 
ing. The  reserved  claim  of  Comstock  and  Penrod  and  the  northern  por- 
tion of  the  Corey  claim  were  the  only  plots  of  ground  shown  to  be  valuable 

'  Comstock  Papers,  Nos.  9-14  ;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  November  25,  December  2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 1876. 

-John  O.  Earl,  San  Francisco,  Cal ,  1880. 

2  Deed  of  Gould  to  Black,  Virginia  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  p.  86. 

■■  Henry  de  Groot,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 


THE  MINING  CAM  I'.  61 

in  addition  to  the  Gold  Hill  tract,  250  feet  in  length,  and  the  southern 
200  feet  of  the  Ophir  claim.^  An  organization,  self-styled  the  Central 
Company  No.  1,  held  possession  by  purchase  of  the  northern  150  feet  of 
the  Corey  claim,^  and  the  100  feet  reserved  by  Comstock  and  Penrod  had 
been  transferred,  on  payment  of  $9,500,^  to  Gabriel  Maldonado  and  Francis 
J.  Hughes,  who  constituted  what  was  called  the  Mexican  Company. 

The  seam  of  black  sulphurets  of  silver  running  through  the  claims 
of  the  Central  and  Ophir  companies  had  been  rudely  developed  by  digging 
large  pits  following  its  course  downward,*  and  the  rich  ore  as  well  as  its 
metalliferous  casing  of  reddish-white  quartz  had  been  cut  out  with  picks 
and  raised  to  the  surface.  The  quartz  body  was  a  broken,  seamy  ledge, 
20  feet  in  width,'^  inclosing  a  vein  of  sulphurets  from  4  to  15  inches  wide 
at  the  level  reached  by  the  pits  on  the  1st  day  of  November,  1859,  30  feet 
from  the  surface.  The  course  of  the  vein  was  a  little  west  of  magnetic 
north,  and  it  ran  downward  with  the  dip  of  the  ledge  at  an  angle  of  48° 
west,  increasing  in  width  as  the  stringers  of  ore  gradually  united  in  a 
well-defined  and  compact  seam." 

The  Ophir  Company  employed  ten  miners  at  wages  of  from  $3  to  $4 
per  day,  and  had  sunk  two  inclined  shafts  by  the  1st  of  November  to  the 
30-foot  level,  opening  up  the  ledge  at  this  point  by  a  large  excavation.'' 
The  Central  Company  had  an  equal  number  of  workmen  employed,  and 
the  bottom  of  their  shaft  had  reached  the  same  level.  Fifty-five  tons  of 
sulphurets  had  been  taken  out  by  the  two  companies,  and  about  1,000  tons 
of  mineralized  quartz.  The  sulphuret  ore  was  broken  up  in  small  pieces 
and  transported  in  boxes  and  sacks,  on  the  backs  of  mules,  across  the 
Sierras.* 

The  first  consignment  of  ore  from  the  mines  was  carried  to  San 
Francisco  by  James  Walsh  and  Henry  Comstock,  who  arrived  on  the  30th 

'  Sacramento  Union,  October  28,  November  4,  1859;  Special  Correspondent,  "Ophir  Diggings,"  Octo- 
ber 22,  October  30,  1859. 

'  Virginia  Mining  Records,  Boole  A,  pp.  42,  57.      Gold  Hill  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  p.  46. 

'  Virginia  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  p.  128,  Book  C,  p.  100. 

■•  Sacramento  Union,  September  13,  1859.  ^  Sacramento  Union,  October  25,  1859. 

^Philip  Deidesheimer,  Superintendent  Hale  and  Norcross  S.  M.  Company,  Virginia  City,  Nev. 

'Sacramento. Union,  November  9,  1859;  Special  Correspondent,  October  31,  1859. 

°  John  O.  Earl,  San  Francisco,  Cal.;    Sacramento  Union,  November  4,  1859. 


62 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


of  August,  1859.  They  sold  their  freight,  3,151  pounds  in  all,  for  $1.50 
per  pound  without  difficulty.^  This  success  induced  the  owners  of  the 
"Ophir  claim"'  to  ship  their  rich  sulphur et  ore  to  San  Francisco  as 
rapidly  as  it  could  be  extracted,  and  before  the  1st  of  November,  1859,  at 
which  date  the  freighting  season  was  practically  closed,  38  tons  had  been 
sent  away  and  delivered  to  Joseph  Mosheimer,  of  San  Francisco,  for  reduc- 
tion.'*  The  gross  yield  of  this  ore  when  crushed  and  smelted  was  |112,000, 
so  that  the  profits  of  the  Ophir  Company  were  very  large,  although  the 
expenses  of  reduction  were  $412  per  ton  and  the  freightage  charges  for 
transportation  to  San  Francisco  were  $140  per  ton.^ 

The  books  of  J.  R.  Whitney,  consignee's  agent  at  Sacramento,  showed 
that  41,400  pounds  of  ore  were  shipped  to  San  Francisco  by  the  Central 
Company  during  the  season  of  1859,  and  though  no  record  of  its  value  is 
now  attainable,  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  the  gross  yield  was  fully 
$50,000." 

No  systematic  work  was  undertaken  by  any  other  companies  during 
1859  except  by  the  Mexican  company,  which  by  the  end  of  October  had 
just  reached  the  black  sulphuret  vein.  Still  the  metalliferous  quartz  of 
their  ledge,  when  crushed  in  arrastras,  yielded  a  fair  return,  as  did  also 
the  mound  claims  at  Gold  Hill,  though  worked  rather  indolently  in  most 
instances. 

The  following  table,  compiled  from  various  sources,  furnishes  proba- 
bly the  best  approximate  record  attainable  of  the  bullion  yield  during 
1859  and  the  previous  year : 

GOLD  CASON  claims. 


Year. 

Number  of 
working  days. 

Number  of  miners. 

Daily  eamingB. 

Total. 

1858 

5120  X 

^220  X 

'60  X 
20  X 

»$3  = 
3  = 

$21,600 
13,200 

$34,800 

'  James  Walsh,  March  22, 1881. 
'  James  Walsh ;  Joseph  Mosheimer. 
'John  O.  Earl,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

<  Sacramento  Union,  November  4, 1859 ;  report  from  books  of  J.  E.  Whitney,  consignee's  ageni,  Sacra 
mento,  Cal. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  March  13, 1858 ;  William  Naileigh,  Virginia  City,  Nev.,  1880. 


THE  MINING  CAMP. 


63 


GOLD  CASON  claims. 


Year. 

Number  of 
working  days. 

Number  of  miners. 

Daily  earnings. 

Total. 

1859 

120  X 

40  X 

$5  = 

$24,0001 

CAKSON  RIVER  PLACER. 


1859. 


280  X 


50  X' 


$2.50  = 


$35, 000 


$59, 000 


a  (Chinese  miners  chiefly.) 
COMSTOCK   LODE. 


Ophir  mine,  ore  smelted 

Ophir  mine,  ore  reduced  in  arrasti'as. 

Central  mine,  ore  smelted 

Central  mine,  ore  reduced  in  arrastras  . 
Mexican  mine,  ore  reduced  in  arrastras  . 
Gold  Hill  c'aims,  arrastras  and  rockers  . 


$112,000^ 
18, 000 » 
50, 000 < 
12,0006 
15,0006 
50,0006  = 


$257, 000 


$316, 000 


On  the  2d  of  November,  1859,  a  storm  came  up  from  the  west,  bury- 
ing the  hills  a  foot  deep  in  snow.''  The  winter  had  set  in  early  and  work 
on  the  claims  was  generally  abandoned.  Some  of  the  miners  found 
quarters  in  the  valley  towns,  but  the  main  body  remained  near  their  claims 
at  the  foot  of  the  Sun  Peak,  which  had  received  the  more  prosaic  name  of 
Mount  Davidson,  in  honor  of  a  San  Francisco  banker,  one  of  the  incor- 
porators of  the  Ophir  Company,  to  whom  the  shipments  of  sulphuret  ore 
were  consigned. 

Two  little  towns  had  sprung  up  on  this  ground,  one  at  Gold  Hill 
taking  the  name  of  that  mound,*  and  the  other  about  the  Ophir  claim 
named  Virginia  City,"  after  the  first  locator  of  the  Virginia  ledge  and  the 
Gold  Hill  mound  claims,  "Old  Virginny."  A  single  street  had  been  laid 
out  in  October,  1859,  by  Herman  Camp  and  Henry  de  Groot,  along  the 
supposed  line  of  the  Comstock  ledge,  running  therefore  nearly  north  and 
south,  except  when  it  was  necessary  to  make  a  detour  to  avoid  cabins 

-  Sacramento  Union,  October  28, 1859 ;  Special  Correspondent,  Ophir  Diggings,  October  22, 1859. 

-  J.  Mosheimer.         ^  Sacramento  Union,  November  9, 1859.         ■•  Report  of  J.  Whitney,  consignee's  agent. 
6  Sacramento  Union,  November  9, 1859 ;  Special  Correspondent,  Washoe  District,  October  31, 1859. 

6  La  Porte  Mountain  Messenger,  October  22, 1859. 

'Henry  de  Groot,  San  Fr.incisco,  Cal.,  1880;  Census  Marshal  for  Western  Utah,  1860. 
'Named  February  8,  1859.— (Territorial  Enterprise,  June  20,  1875.) 

^  Named  at  meeting  in  September,  1859.  James  Walsh  ;  testimony  under  oath  ;  S.  C.  Barnes  et  al.  v». 
Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company. 


64  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

whose  owners  refused  to  move.^  On  the  line  of  this  street  two  houses  of 
roughly  cemented  stone  had  been  built,  surrounded  by  straggling  lines  of 
flimsy  huts.^  Tents  of  dirty,  ragged  canvas  pieced  out  with  tattered 
clothes  coated  with  grime — hovels  of  pine  boards  roughly  nailed  together 
and  pierced  by  bent  and  rusty  stove-pipes — heaps  of  broken  rocks  with 
shapeless  crevices  into  which  men  crawled  like  lizards — shallow  pits 
partly  covered  over  with  boards  and  earth — and  embryo  adits,  dark  slimy 
holes  into  which  the  melting  snow  dripped  with  a  monotonous  plash — 
these  were  the  winter  homes  of  the  citizens. 

Fierce  whirlwinds,  which  the  shivering  miners  with  invincible  humor 
christened  Washoe  zephyrs,  swept  down  the  sides  of  Mount  Davidson  with 
blinding  gusts  of  snow,  unroofing  the  huts  and  tossing  the  mangled  tents 
over  the  rocks.  The  miners  swore  at  the  snow  and  the  wind  and  the  market 
prices,  but  had  no  thought  of  abandoning  their  camp.  When  they  had  no 
wood  they  cut  the  dry  sage-brush  and  managed  to  cook  their  daily  bacon 
over  the  light  crackling  fires.  If  the  snow  drifted  through  the  chinks  of 
their  huts  and  covered  them  with  an  icy  powder,  they  rolled  their  blankets 
more  tightly  about  their  bodies  and  closed  their  ears  to  the  blasts  which 
howled  above  their  heads.  The  sacred  thirst  for  gold  had  made  them 
insensible  to  cold,  hunger,  and  fatigue,  and  they  longed  for  the  coming  of 
spring,  therefore,  not  so  much  as  a  relief  from  the  sufferings  of  the  winter 
as  because  they  could  begin  again  their  untiring  search  for  hidden  veins 
of  ore.  Meanwhile  they  passed  the  tedious  days  in  gambling,  drinking, 
and  discussing  the  prospects  of  the  next  season. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Sierras,  in  cheerful  homes  of  San  Francisco, 
men  waited  for  the  spring-time  with  scarcely  less  ardent  impatience.  The 
mountain  barrier  was  still  covered  with  snow  when  that  extraordinary 
movement,  called  tersely  the  "Rush  to  Washoe,"  had  already  begun. 
"  Rushes "  to  different  mining  districts  were  common,  but  since  the 
mighty  migration  by  land  and  sea  toward  California  in  1849  there  had 
been  no  excitement  equal  to  this. 

The  discovery  of  gold  was  already  a  twice-told  tale ;  the  discovery  of 

'  Henry  de  Groot,  Sau  Francisco,  Ca!.,  1880. 

'  Early  Times. — (Territorial  Enterprise,  June  20,  1875. )    Henry  de  Groot. 


THE  MINING  CAMP.  65 

silver  was  a  novel  sensation.  The  bars  of  white  bullion  from  the  furnaces 
of  Mosheimer  were  followed  by  a  gathering  crowd  as  they  were  borne 
through  the  streets  of  San  Francisco,  and  a  throng  of  excited  spectators 
stood  all  day  before  the  windows  of  the  bankers,  Alsop  &  Co.,  in  which 
they  were  displayed.'  To  some  the  silver  was  merely  a  novel  product  of 
neighboring  mines;  to  others  the  bars  were  pregnant  with  dazzling 
images.  The  treasures  of  Potosi,  the  ransom  of  Montezuma,  the  deep- 
laden  galleons  of  Spain,  and  a  host  of  vague  memories  were  awakened 
by  the  sight  of  these  masses  of  bullion.  The  fever  spread  rapidly ;  mer- 
chants closed  their  counting-rooms  and  clerks  left  their  desks;  sailors 
deserted  their  ships  and  mechanics  their  work-shops ;  the  ranchmen  from 
the  plains  and  the  restless  swarm  of  gold-placer  miners  swelled  a  migra- 
tion not  unlike  the  train  of  children  drawn  on  by  the  entrancing  notes 
of  the  piper  of  Hamelin.  How  to  reach  the  silver  ledges  was  the  absorb- 
ing thought,  for  beyond  the  Sierras  the  riches  of  their  dreams  appeared 
before  them,  and  neither  inexperience  nor  poverty  could  deter  such  pas- 
sionate pilgrims  from  joining  the  odd  troop  which  began  its  march  over  the 
mountains  while  the  passes  were  still  impassable. 

The  boat  from  San  Francisco  to  Sacramento  left  the  wharf  reeling 
under  its  load  of  freight  night  after  night — its  decks  lumbered  up  with 
packages  of  food,  tents,  blankets,  kettles,  and  tools,  and  covered  with 
sprawling  figures  discussing  the  interminable  silver  question  and  their 
Washoe  Mecca  in  a  dozen  different  tongues,  or  snatching  uneasy  moments 
of  sleep  amid  the  confusion  of  the  moving  babel.^ 

From  Sacramento  the  old  emigrant  trail  led  by  the  way  of  Placerville 
over  Johnson's  Pass  into  the  Valley  of  the  Carson.  Although  this  had 
been  the  path  of  the  great  overland  migration,  the  road  was  a  rudely- 
broken  track,  scarcely  fit  for  wagons  even  in  summer,  and  when  the  advance 
guard  reached  Placerville  the  movement  was  checked  by  the  snow  block- 
ade^ and  hundreds  of  tons  of  freight  accumulated  in  the  streets  of  the  town 
which  could  not  be  dragged  across  the  mountains,  although  50  and  60 
cents  per  pound  were  freely  offered  to  teamsters.* 

'  Joseph  Mosheimer,  San  Francisco.  '  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  27,  1860. 

'  San  Francisco  Eveuiuf;  Bulletin,  March  30,  1860 ;  Special  Correspondent,  Placerville,  March  28,  I860' 
■■Sacramento  Union,  March  31,  1860. 
(5   H   c) 


66  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  stay  was  only  a  transient  halt.  Pressed  on  by  the  crowd  behind 
and  the  wish  to  be  first  at  the  goal,  the  vanguard  mounted  the  pass  toiling 
through  the  snow.^  Pack  animals  carried  the  necessary  food,  blankets 
and  tools,  or  rude  sledges  were  hastily  framed  and  pulled  by  sure-footed 
mules  harnessed  in  line  over  the  summit.  Cold,  fatigue,  and  the  dangers 
of  the  passage  were  disregarded.  The  fear  of  falling  behind  in  the  race 
for  the  ledges  was  the  only  dread. 

Among  this  headstrong  troop  were  a  few  shrewd  traders,  who  saw  a 
richer  prize  in  the  fortune-hunters  than  in  their  loadstone.  None  gauged 
the  demand  in  the  new  district  more  accurately  than  John  L.  Moore,  who 
left  San  Francisco  on  the  9th  of  March  with  his  stock  of  goods,  which 
consisted  chiefly  of  200  pairs  of  blankets,  costing  $2  per  pair ;  20  dozen 
tin-plates,  costing  22  cents  per  dozen  ;  10  gallons  brandy,  costing  $6  per 
gallon;  10  gallons  gin,  costing  $3.50  per  gallon;  30  gallons  whisky, 
costing  $3.75  per  gallon ;  10  gallons  rum,  costing  $3  per  gallon ;  and 
70  gallons  assorted  wines  and  liquors  of  various  kinds.  The  total 
weight  of  his  invoice  was  2,100  pounds.  This  load  he  was  able  to  trans- 
port by  wagon  to  Placerville,  where  he  counted  himself  fortunate  in 
securing  a  pack-train  to  carry  it  over  the  mountains  to  the  new  camp  at 
the  charge  of  50  cents  per  pound.  Emerging,  at  length,  from  the  snow- 
drifts, he  reached  the  camp  on  the  last  day  of  March,  1860. 

The  gaunt,  liquor-laden  mules  were  welcomed  by  the  thirsty  miners 
as  well-springs  in  a  desert  are  hailed  by  weary  travelers.  They  could 
scarcely  wait  while  he  unpacked  his  stores,  and  grumbled  at  the  delay  in 
erecting  his  canvas  tent,  15  by  52  feet  in  size.  The  first  carpet  laid  in 
Virginia  City  was  spread  upon  its  floor,  and  the  first  American  flag  raised 
in  the  camp  waved  from  its  roof.  A  canvas  partition  divided  the  tent  into 
bar-room  and  lodging-room,  and  the  new  hotel  was  then  open  for  guests. 
The  side-board  of  an  emigrant  wagon  served  as  bar  counter,  resting 
on  stakes  driven  into  the  ground.  Before  this  elaborate  preparation 
was  completed  the  day  was  far  advanced  and  the  miners  were  ready  to 
sack  the  store-house.  When  the  precious  liquors  were  at  last  ranged 
beside  the  bar  an  irresistible  rush  was  made  toward  the  counter,  and 


'  San  Francisco  Bulletin,  April  9,  I860.— (Special  Correspondent,  Carson  City,  April  2,  1860. 


UNITED  S  lATKS  GE(  )LUG1C/\L  SITOI-A' 


COMSTOCK  MINING  AND  MINER?    PLATE  U. 


i,.;.  \.-...-.-.-i,u- 


M. 


Tupodi-apKy  fi-om  -State   Survev  oT  Cnlifiiriiia 


Jiiliiii,liieiiS.(.o!illL 


ELIOT  -LORD,  in   Lharde, 


MAP  OF  THE  CARSON  VALLEY. 


THE  MINING  CAMP.  67 

the  customers  drank  faster  than  they  could  be  served.  Two  hundred 
dollars  worth  of  liquor  was  sold  before  night-fall,  but  the  thirst  seemed 
unabated. 

Thirty-six  guests  slept  that  night  in  the  lodging-room,  16  by  30  feet 
in  size,  paying  the  charge  of  |1  for  the  use  of  a  pair  of  blankets  spread 
on  the  ground,  and  more  than  fifty  applicants  for  lodging  were  turned 
away.  A  few  favored  inmates  laid  their  heads  down  on  pillow  ticks 
stuffed  with  hay,  but  the  stuffing  cost  50  cents  per  pound,  and  only  a  few 
pounds  were  to  be  had  at  that  price.  To  fill  out  the  pillows  shavings 
were  brought  from  Gold  Hill,  but  as  the  bundle  was  carelessly  left  outside 
the  tent  the  starving  mules  of  a  pack-train  devoured  it  before  morning. 

Fresh  supplies  of  liquor  continued  to  arrive,  but  food  was  still  scanty. 
When  the  first  load  of  flour  was  brought  into  camp  the  demand  was  so 
great  that  it  was  sold  at  auction  for  not  less  than  a  dollar  per  pound. 
Nails  were  in  equal  request,  selling  for  a  dollar  per  pound,  and  shovels 
brought  $9  apiece.  The  profits  of  the  retail  trade  may  be  surnysed  from 
the  fact  that  Moore  refused  a  cash  offer  of  $8,000,  five  times  the  cost  of 
his  whole  outfit,  "for  the  lot"  on  the  day  before  reaching  the  camp.l 

As  the  snow  melted  on  the  mountains  the  prices  of  supplies  fell  some- 
what, while  the  stir  of  travel  increased.  The  camp  was  growing  like  a 
mushroom,  when  the  news  of  an  Indian  outrage  was  brought  to  the  mines. 
Colored  and  garbled  to  suit  the  narrator's  demand  for  vengeance  the  story 
ran  that  the  Nyumas^  had  attacked  without  provocation  a  well-known 
station  on  the  overland  route,  20  miles  from  Virginia  City,  killed  the 
owners,  Oscar  and  Edwin  Williams,  as  well  as  three  strangers,  their  guests, 
and  left  the  charred  bodies  in  the  ashes  of  the  burnt  cabin.  James  Wil- 
liams, brother  of  the  two  station-keepers,  alone  escaped  to  tell  of  the 
massacre.* 

The  probable  inaccuracy  of  this  report  was  observed  by  a  few  of  the 
cooler  heads,  but  the  majority  did  not  stop  to  hear  the  other  side  of  the 
story.     Many  did  not  care  whether  the  Williams  brothers  were  the  original 

'John  L.  Moore,  Virginia  City,  Nev.  ^Popularly  termed  the  "Pi-Utes." 

'Sacramento  Union,  May  9, 10,  1860 ;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  May  12,  1860 ;  Adolf  Sutro,  Bul- 
letin Correspondent,  May  9, 1860;  San  Francisco  Herald  Correspondent,  Carson  City,  May  16,  1860 ;  Henry  de 
Groot. 


68  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

aggressors  or  not.'  It  was  enough  for  them  to  know  that  the  Indians  had 
assumed  to  act  as  judges  and  executioners,  for  pioneer  lynch-law  was  very- 
different  from  Pi-Ute  lynch-law.  So  the  appeal  for  vengeance  was  echoed 
by  a  hundred  throats  and  a  motley  company  mustered  from  the  mining 
towns  and  the  settlements  in  the  valley,  poorly  mounted  and  armed  as  a 
rule  with  wretched  muskets  and  shot-guns,  but  elated  with  the  transient 
excitement  and  the  fancied  opportunity  of  "teaching  the  red  devils  a 
lesson."* 

The  Pi-Utes  had  been  so  inoffensive  and  placable  that  the  idea  of  their 
offering  any  organized  or  stubborn  resistance  never  entered  the  minds  of 
the  one  hundred  and  six  avengers  who  constituted  the  irregular  posse 
and  intended  to  administer  even-handed  justice  to  the  offenders  by  put- 
ting to  death  as  many  of  the  tribe  as  fell  into  their  hands.  Fortunately 
they  met  no  stragglers  on  the  march  down  the  valley,  as  the  fires  of  the 
Pi-Utes,  kindled  from  hill  to  hill,  had  given  warning  of  the  movement  of 
the  enemy,  and  the  tribe  was  massed  near  Pyramid  Lake,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  Carson  River.^  Besides,  the  whites  advanced  so  openly  and  boister- 
ously that  no  herald  was  needed  to  clear  the  way  before  them. 

They  passed  the  burnt  station  and  followed  the  course  of  the  Carson 
through  the  desert.  As  they  entered  the  narrow,  rocky  valley  near  the 
shore  of  Pyramid  Lake  they  saw  a  body  of  mounted  Indians  on  a  ridge 
half  a  mile  distant,  and  when  they  approached  nearer  four  or  five  Indians 
were  observed  to  separate  from  the  main  body  and  gallop  up  and  down 
before  the  advancing  force  of  whites,  brandishing  guns  or  spears  in  a 
defiant  manner  as  was  thought.* 

One  chief  rode  forward  holding  aloft  a  white  object  on  the  end  of  a 
staff]  Strangely  enough  this  flag  of  truce  appeared  to  the  whites  "  a  shining 
battle-axe  or  tomahawk  of  tin,"®  and  a  shot  was  fired  at  the  bearer,  caus- 
ing him  to  wheel  his  black  horse  suddenly  and  ride  back  to  his  companions. 


'  Henry  de  Groot,  Isaac  E.  James,  Frank  Soule.  '  Sacramento  Union,  May  14, 15,  1860. 

'  Natchez,  grandson  of  Winnemucca,  chief  of  tribe,  1860. 

••  Adolf  Sutro,  Correspondent  San  Francisco  Bulletin,  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  May  15, 1860.  Full  report 
from  statements  of  Capt.  A.  McDonald,  Joseph  Baldwin,  and  others,  "the  most  trustworthy  members  of  attack- 
ing party." 

*  Sacramento  Union,  May  31,  1860. 


THE  MINING  CAMP.  69 

At  this  rebuff  the  Indians  "yelled  like  demons,"  and  dismounting  from 
their  horses,  which  remained  standing  motionless,^  descended  the  ridge 
and  began  firing  at  the  whites. 

The  leader  of  the  attacking  company,  Major  Ormsby,  then  gave  the 
order  to  charge,  and  as  the  men  rushed  up  the  ridge  the  Indians  fell  back, 
and  remounting,  charged  over  the  valley-bed  in  squads,  wheeling  and 
circling  about  in  the  deep  sand  so  rapidly  that  the  tired  horses  of  the 
whites  could  not  follow  them.^  At  the  same  moment  a  second  body  of 
Indians  on  foot  attacked  the  scattered  company  on  the  flank  ^  and  a  desul- 
tory skirmish  began  which  lasted  until  the  whites,  by  Ormsby's  order, 
retreated  to  a  deep  gulch  near  the  bank  of  the  river,  content  to  maintain 
a  position  of  defense. 

Here  the  Indians  were  held  in  check  for  some  minutes,  when  a  third 
division,  three  or  four  hundred  strong,  were  seen  to  advance  from  the 
river  with  the  evident  intention  of  attacking  the  whites  in  the  rear  and 
cutting  off  their  retreat.  Outnumbered  and  outmaneuvered,  "a  great 
panic  seized  us,"  said  McDonald,  one  of  the  leaders,  "and  a  majority  of 
our  men  broke  for  the  river."  The  remainder  were  obliged  to  follow,  a 
few  halting  stubbornly  and  firing  last  shots  with  desperate  courage.'* 

Inflamed  by  success,  the  Indians  swept  through  the  valley  in  pursuit 
like  hounds  when  the  fox  is  in  sight,*  overtaking  and  burying  one  victim 
after  another  under  the  weight  of  their  writhing  bodies.  So  Ormsby  died 
with  twenty  hands  at  his  throat,  though  shielded  for  a  moment  by  Natchez, 
grandson  of  the  old  chief.*  The  retreat  became  a  mad  race  for  life,  and 
only  half  of  the  fugitives  reached  the  valley  towns  in  safety.' 

The  contempt  for  Indian  strategy  and  prowess  was  changed  instantly 
to  a  natural  but  probably  causeless  fear.  The  Pi-Utes  had  made  a  skillful 
defense  under  the  direction  of  their  young  chief,  Winnemucca,  and  his 

'  A  resemblance  worth  noting  to  the  training  of  the  horses  of  the  Suebi. — (De  Bello  Gallico,  Comm.  Ill, 
chap.  I,  II.) 

=  Adolf  Sutro,  May  15,  1860.  s  Natchez,  grandson  of  Winnemucca,  1880. 

*  Sacramento  Union,  June  4,  1860 ;  Carson  Valley  Correspondent,  May  29.  1860. 

'Ira  A.  Eaton,  San  Francisco  Alta  Correspondent,  May  15,  1860,  Virginia  City.  »  Natchez. 

'  "  Seventy-six  killed;"  William  Wright,  "Big  Bonanza,"  p.  120;  Editor  of  Sacramento  Union,  June  4, 
1860.  "  Fifty-nine,  including  wounded ;"  record  from  company  rolls  furnished  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin 
by  A.  B.  Trask,  probably  more  accurate. 


70  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

lieutenant,  Joaquin/  but  they  had  no  intention  of  following  up  their 
advantage  by  an  aggressive  movement;  in  fact  the  elder  Winnemucca, 
patriarch  of  the  tribe,  had  counseled  peace,  and  it  was  by  his  advice  that 
the  flag  of  truce  was  borne  by  Joaquin.^ 

The  Indians  had  been  harassed  in  many  ways  by  the  increase  of  the 
white  settlers,  but  had  endured  the  necessary  evils  with  singular  patience. 
Their  fish-preserves  had  been  pre-empted  by  squatters  and  their  pastures 
about  Pyramid  Lake  eaten  bare  by  intruding  cattle.^  They  protested 
against  the  action  of  the  stockmen,*  but  retaliated  in  no  way  until  two 
young  girls  of  the  tribe  were  decoyed  by  the  Williams  brothers  into  their 
station  and  most  brutally  treated.®  After  an  anxious  search  the  relatives 
of  the  girls  found  their  prison,  and  in  the  natural  fury  of  revenge  cut 
down  the  ofi"enders  and  set  fire  to  their  cabin.  No  innocent  person  was 
harmed,  and  the  punishment  of  the  guilty  was  in  accordance  with  the 
tribal  customs  and  frontier  notions  of  justice.  When  the  tribe  was 
attacked  indiscriminately  by  the  party  under  Ormsby  the  lesson  given  was 
a  wholesome  one,  but  neither  expected  nor  pleasing.  It  was  so  instructive, 
however,  that  the  mistake  of  undervaluing  their  opponents  was  not  com- 
mitted a  second  time. 

The  news  of  the  fight  at  Pyramid  Lake  was  telegraphed  across  the 
mountains  to  California,  and  a  force  of  cavalry,  artillery,  and  irregular 
militia  troops  were  dispatched  in  answer  to  the  panic-stricken  call  for 
help.^  Virginia  City  was  put  under  martial-law.'  Some  of  the  women  and 
children  were  sent  across  the  Sierras  and  the  remainder  were  placed  in  a 
rude  stone  block-house.^  Prospecting  holes  and  tunnels  were  deserted ; 
the  miners  enrolled  themselves  hastily  in  companies;  rusty  arms  were 
furbished  up ;  old  scraps  of  lead  and  water-pipes  were  melted  and  cast 
in  bullet-molds;  the  camps  and  valley  settlements  were  scoured  for 
stray  flasks  of  powder;  guards  were  stationed  at  different  points  in  the 
town  and  patrols  watched  outposts  on  the  surrounding  hills.^ 

'  Natchez,  grandson  of  the  elder  Winnemucca.  '  Natchez. 

'  Frank  Soule,  writing  from  Virginia  City,  April  '21,  1860.  '  Henry  de  Groot. 

'  Sarah  Winnemucca,  granddaughter  of  Winnemucca ;  Henry  de  Greet. 

^  Indian  Campaign,  1860. — (Territorial  Enterprise,  June  21,  1872.) 

'San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  May  13,  1860. 

'  Henry  de  Groot,  Isaac  E.  James.     San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  May  21,  1860.  '  Henry  de  Groot 


THE  MINING  CAMP.  71 

Some  more  phlegmatic  spirits  laughed  at  the  warlike  fever,  but  the 
alarm  was  contagious.*  Finally,  a  force  of  1,000  men  was  assembled  in 
the  valley  and  marched  against  the  Pi-Utes,  the  regulars  under  com- 
mand of  Captain  J.  Stewart  and  the  militia  under  their  chosen  colonel, 
John  C.  Hays  (May  29,  1860).^  The  Indians  resisted  bravely  in  a  sharp 
skirmish  near  the  place  of  their  former  action,^  but  were  overmatched 
and  fled  to  the  deserts  extending  to  the  northeast,*  and  after  a  vain  attempt 
at  pursuit  the  little  army  of  whites  returned  to  the  valley  and  disbanded. 

Meanwhile  the  rush  to  Washoe,  which  had  been  checked  by  the 
report  of  the  Indian  victory,  was  renewed  with  greater  vigor  than  befoi'e. 
The  motley  train  which  stretched  in  a  broken  line  from  Sacramento 
to  the  mines  calls  to  mind  the  grotesque  march  to  Finchley.  Old  men 
and  young,  waifs  from  many  nations,  who  had  drifted  during  ten  years  to 
the  Californian  gold  fields,  with  every  variety  of  dress  and  equipment, 
mounted  and  on  foot,  driving  pack-mules,  burros,  horses,  and  oxen — 
dusty,  muddy,  tired  and  foot-sore — this  oddly-assorted  company  was  knit 
together  by  the  bond  of  a  common  purpose.  In  the  little  stations  on  their 
route  Piedmontese  and  Gornishmen,  Jews  and  Catholics,  mechanics  and 
scholars,  honest  men  and  rogues,  snatched  their  food  hastily  from  the 
same  rude  board,  splashed  with  all  the  stains  which  the  medley  of  dishes 
.  could  furnish,  and  slept  at  night  on  the  same  bed  of  straw.  When  morn- 
ing came  they  crawled  out  from  the  straw  unwashed,  unkempt,  stiff,  bitten 
by  fleas  and  bugs,  and  began  again  their  tedious  march  to  the  valley  of 
the  Carson. 

Along  the  South  Fork  of  the  American  River  the  road  during  the 
spring  months  was  for  miles  a  trough  of  mire,  so  deep  that  the  mud  was 
often  pushed  along  by  a  wagon  body  for  rods  until  the  creaking  cart  came 
to  a  stand  still,  only  to  be  plucked  out  by  the  help  of  a  following  team, 
which  could  not  otherwise  pass.  Volleys  of  oaths  urged  the  struggling 
mules  up  the  steeper  grades,  and  the  mountain  walls  re-echoed  the  incon- 

'  Sacramento  Union,  May  19,  1860. 

2  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  June  7,  1860 ;  Special  Correspondent  with  troops,  May  30,  June  1, 
June  2,  1860. 

'  June  2,  1860. 

*  Sacramento  Union,  June  9,  1860.  A  few  months  later  they  were  permitted  to  return  unmolested  to  their 
homes  on  Pyramid  Lake,  and  to  mingle  as  curious  visitors  with  the  citizens  of  the  mining  camps. 


72  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

gruous  sounds  with  startling  effect,^  The  descent  to  the  valley  led  through 
Carson  Canon,  a  precipitous  gorge,  down  which  the  wagons  slipped,  pitch- 
ing and  creaking,  while  the  grating  shoe-brake  squeaked  incessantly. 

"  The  jolts  and  jars  became  a  torture,"  wrote  a  passenger  descending 
in  one  of  the  over-crowded  coaches.^  "  We  left  the  stage  with  one  accord 
and  watched  it  rolling  and  pitching  about  among  the  rocks.  The  wheel- 
horses,  threshed  about  by  the  jerking,  swaying  pole,  stagger  and  groan,  and 
the  leaders  stop  and  look  about  them  in  amazement,  wondering,  no  doubt, 
at  the  cool  impudence  which  could  locate  a  road  in  such  a  place."  Yet 
a  city  in  the  desert  must  be  built  up  and  sustained  by  supplies  transported 
over  this  Sierran  barrier.  Wagons  succeeded  pack-mules  and  sledges. 
Through  the  slough  along  the  bank  of  the  American  River  only  one-third 
of  a  full  load  could  be  pulled,^  and  to  carry  1,500  pounds  of  freight  50  miles 
from  Placerville  $120  was  paid  in  April,  1860.  In  May  more  than  2,000 
animals  were  employed  in  the  work  of  transportation  as  the  road  became 
more  passable,  and  freight  charges  fell  to  18  cents  per  pound  from  Placer- 
ville to  the  mines,*  or  $630  for  an  average  wagon  load  of  3,500  pounds. 

In  September,  1860,  three  hundred  and  fifty-three  wagons,  drawn  by 
four  or  six  mules  generally,  were  counted  going  and  returning  between 
Placerville  and  Carson  Valley,^  and  fifty  additional  wagons  were  said  to  be 
loading  and  delivering  goods  at  each  end  of  the  route.  The  round  trip 
was  made  in  from  twelve  to  twenty  days,  and  an  average  of  eight  trips 
during  the  season.  Consequently  (453  by  3,500  by  8)  12,764,000  pounds 
were  transported  by  freight  wagons  alone,  beside  nearly  1,000,000  pounds 
more  by  pack-mules  and  other  conveyances."  If  the  amount  of  custom 
freight  be  put  at  13,500,000  pounds  and  the  average  tariff  at  10  cents  per 
pound — a  low  estimate — the  amount  paid  for  transportation  in  1860  was 
11,350,000. 

Words  can  scarcely  picture  the  chaotic  confusion  in  which  the  camp 
was  plunged  by  the  arrival  of  these  motley  swarms.    Wretched  huts  of 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  9,  1860. 
'  Sacramento  Union,  November  15,  1859. 
^  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  9,  1860. 
*  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  M.iy  12,  1860. 
'  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  29,  1860. 
'  Placerville  Democrat,  September  29,  1860. 


THE  MINING  CAMP  73 

canvas,  wood,  and  cobble  stones  covered  the  slope,  forming  a  shapeless 
city  traversed  by  three  main  lanes'  styled  streets  by  courtesy.  A  restless 
crowd  blocked  these  narrow  passages,  flowing  in  and  out  of  their  bordering 
saloons  and  gambling  houses.^  The  cheerless  hovels  were  deserted  for 
these  lighted  rooms,  the  real  homes  of  the  citizens.  Little  stacks  of  gold 
and  silver  fringed  the  monte  tables  and  glittered  beneath  the  swinging 
lamps.  A  ceaseless  din  of  boisterous  talk,  oaths,  and  laughter  spread 
from  the  open  doors  into  the  streets.  The  rattle  of  dice,  coin,  balls, 
and  spinning-markers,  the  flapping  of  greasy  cards  and  the  chorus  of  calls 
and  interjections  went  on  day  and  night,  while  clouds  of  tobacco  smoke 
filled  the  air  and  blackened  the  roof-timbers,  modifying  the  stench  rising 
from  the  stained  and  greasy  floors,  soiled  clothes,  and  hot  flesh  of  the 
unwashed  company.*  Sometimes  the  sharp  crack  of  a  pistol  would  bring 
the  players  to  their  feet  and  the  doorway  would  be  choked  with  a  wild  rush 
of  all  except  the  two  who  were  settling  a  trifling  dispute  by  an  effective 
Washoe  duel  across  a  table.  When  one  or  both  of  the  disputants  were 
proved  to  be  in  the  wrong  by  the  issue  of  the  trial  by  combat,  the 
scattered  crowd  returned  to  their  former  seats  with  a  universal  call  for 
liquors,  simple  and  compound. 

Without  and  within  doors  a  fever  of  speculation  raged  without  check.* 
Sales  of  claims  for  money  were  comparatively  rare,  but  barters  were 
incessant.  "Feet"  in  a  thousand  locations  on  cropping  rocks  or  bare 
ground  were  bought  and  sold  indiscriminately.  The  position  or  existence 
even  of  most  of  these  so-called  ledges  was  scarcely  known,  but  this  made 
little  difference,  for  all  claims  had  a  nominal,  if  fictitious,  value  and  were 
serviceable  for  purposes  of  exchange.  Paper  fortunes  were  made  in  days 
by  shrewd  sales  or  rumors  of  rich  "strikes"  and  "assays."  Pockets  and 
hands  were  filled  with  bits  of  quartz  or  country  rock  and  samples  were 
brandished  in  the  faces  of  friends  and  strangers  wherever  met.  Eyes  were 
strained  to  detect  invisible  specks  of  metal ;  pyrites  was  boastingly  pointed 
out  as  gold,  and  pieces  of  worthless  galena  were  gravely  presented  as 
black  sulphurets  of  silver. 

'  Henry  de  Groot.  ^  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  16,  1860. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  April  25  and  October  8,  1860. 

■•Harpers'  Magazine,  December,  1860;  Peep  at  Wasljoe,  J.  Ros3  Browne. 


74  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Working  miners  formed  a  small  part  of  the  speculative  troop  which 
had  crossed  the  mountains.  Probably  half  were  a  swarm  of  drones,  many 
of  whom  were  penniless  and  worthless  as  laborers  in  any  capacity.  They 
could  sleep  on  the  sage-brush  and  in  holes  like  gophers,  but  they  could 
not  eat  bitter  wood  or  sand,  yet  they  contrived  to  subsist  by  various 
devices — borrowing  money  from  lucky  gamblers,  haunting  free-lunch 
counters,  pledging  "feet"  with  reckless  butchers  and  bakers,  or  picking 
the  pockets  of  good-natured  friends.  The  healthy  growth  of  the  camp 
was  hindered  by  the  access  of  these  vagrants  even  more  than  by  the  pres- 
ence of  the  unorganized  band  of  bravos  who  began  to  bluster  about  the 
streets — for  one  was  a  clog,  the  other  merely  a  gad-fly. 

The  Indian  war  had  demonstrated  the  utter  inetficacy  and  feebleness 
of  the  civil  authority  of  the  district,  vested  in  a  justice  of  the  peace  and 
constable  at  Virginia  City  and  a  probate  judge  at  Gold  Hill.  This  was, 
indeed,  so  clearly  evident  before  that  meetings  had  been  held  during  the 
previous  year  to  elect  delegates  to  a  so-called  Constitutional  Convention, 
which  had  actually  assembled  at  Genoa  July  18,  1859,  and  framed  a  con- 
stitution ratified  at  a  popular  election  for  State  officers,  September  7, 1859.^ 
Unfortunately  no  provision  had  been  made  for  defraying  the  expenses 
of  this  independent  government,  and  as  the  legislative  assembly-elect  was 
powerless  to  levy  taxes  or  enforce  its  authority,  it  adjourned  after  gravely 
receiving  the  first  annual  message  of  the  governor,  Isaac  Roop,  and  pass- 
ing a  sufficient  number  of  well-intended  resolutions. 

The  first  apparent  result  of  this  malcontent  demonstration  and  the 
appeals  to  Congress  to  dismember  Utah  by  creating  a  new  Territory  out 
of  its  western  counties,  was  to  call  down  upon  the  heads  of  the  imperti- 
nent colonists  the  long  gathering  indignation  of  the  Utah  Church  Council, 
expressed  in  vigorous  language  by  the  editor  of  the  Salt  Lake  Moun- 
taineer, a  prominent  member  of  the  Church  of  Latter  Day  Saints.  After 
emptying  a  vial  of  wrath  in  a  long  and  bitter  rebuke,  he  shook  out  the 
last  drops  with  the  concluding  malediction:  "Since  the  first  organization 
of  the  Territory,  Carson  has  been  a  most  unremunerative  burden  upon 


'  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  1.3,  1860,  "  Nevada,  its  Past  and  Present ; "  Nevada  Directory.  1862,  '■  Political 
History  of  Nevada;"  Territorial  Enterprise,  June  13,  187'2,  "Historical  Reminiscences." 


THE  MINING  CAMP.  75 

Utah.  What  is  she  now?  A  worthless  unaccountable  scab,  which  cannot 
find  a  place  in  any  class  of  an  honest  vocabulary.  So  let  her  remain, 
dried  up,  buried,  and  forgotten!'" 

Thus  gall  was  given  where  oil  was  needed  and  the  citizens  of  the 
district  were  left  without  relief  The  natural  confusion  incident  to  the  rapid 
growth  of  a  new  mining  camp  and  the  clashing  of  its  turbulent  elements 
was  aggravated  beyond  endurance  by  the  lack  of  any  dominant  authority. 
The  irregular  provisional  government  proved  an  ineffective  farce;  the 
legal  Territorial  government  was  estranged  and  sullenly  inactive,  and  the 
few  county  officers  were  scarcely  more  than  figure-heads. 

The  floating  scum  of  the  Californian  mining  towns  drifted  naturally 
to  the  new  camp,  and  their  number  was  swelled  by  accessions  from  the 
volunteers  for  the  Indian  war.^  They  had  been  tacitly  allowed  to  equip 
themselves  for  the  alleged  defense  of  Virginia  City  by  levies  of  all  sorts 
for  the  good  of  the  service,  and  this  guerrilla  method  of  carrying  on  the 
war  had  rendered  them  absolutely  reckless  of  any  restraint.*  They  lolled 
on  gambling  tables  and  the  bars  of  saloons  and  swaggered  about  the  city 
at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night.  Peace-loving  citizens  avoided  them,  but 
made  no  effort  to  call  them  to  account  for  their  frequent  outrages,  for  no 
jury  could  be  obtained  to  convict  them,  and  the  attempt  was  certain  to 
expose  the  complainant  to  the  malice  of  the  gang  dreaded  with  cause. 
When  they  shot  or  stabbed  one  another  in  their  brutal  orgies  there  was 
a  general  feeling  of  relief,  but  the  place  of  one  dead  scoundrel  was  soon 
filled  by  a  new-comer. 

No  adequate  conception  of  this  seething  life  can  be  given  by  the 
method  of  separate  generalities,  as  Carlyle  terms  it,*  but  characteristic  inci- 
dents must  be  sought  for.  The  most  prominent  figure  of  the  crew  was  a 
burly  ruffian  known  as  Sam.  Brown,  who  had  killed  thirteen  men  in  Texas 
and  California,  as  was  reported,  before  his  arrival  at  Virginia  City.^  The 
terror  and  aversion  which  this  man  inspired  recall  the  nursery  tales  of  the 
days  of  ogres  and  their  victims."     In  the  summer  of  1859  an  agent  of  the 

'  Sacramento  Union,  December  22,  1860. 

'Henry  de  Groot.     San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  May  31,  June  1,  1860. 

'  Henry  de  Groot,  William  A.  Stewart,  James  Morgan. 

■•  Carlyle's  Essays — Burns.  ^  William  A.  Stewart. 

^Territorial  Entei-prise,  July  13,  1861.     "  Brown's  Obituary." 


76  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

leading  western  express  company  called  at  a  station  which  Brown  Avas  then 
keeping  on  the  Humboldt  River  and  desired  something  to  eat.  Brown 
pointed  to  a  hanging  strip  of  bacon,  and  the  traveler  requested  the  loan 
of  a  knife  to  cut  off  a  slice.  With  an  odd  smile  Brown  pulled  out  his 
immense  sheath-knife,  but  immediately  thrust  it  back  into  his  boot-leg, 
remarking  that  he  had  killed  five  men  with  that  knife  and  was  supersti- 
tious about  lending  it  to  cut  bacon.  The  visitor  was  equally  scrupulous, 
and  left  the  cabin  without  the  meat. 

One  of  Brown's  first  exploits  in  the  new  mining  district  was  a  murder, 
which  illustrates  vividly  the  character  of  the  man  and  the  camp,  A  weak, 
underwitted  bar-room  lounger,  whose  feeble  discretion  was  lost  in  liquor, 
staggered  up  to  Brown  one  day  in  a  saloon  and  made  some  remark  which 
the  latter  considered  offensive.^  Without  a  word  the  giant  wound  his 
muscular  arm  about  his  victim  and,  holding  him  as  easily  as  a  cat  does  a 
mouse,  drove  a  sheath-knife  twice  into  his  quivering  body,  turning  it 
"Maltese  fashion"  in  his  vitals.^  Then  he  flung  the  bleeding  sufferer  on 
the  floor,  and  when,  a  few  moments  later,  a  party  took  up  the  man,  still 
breathing  faintly,  from  the  red  pool  beneath  the  bar,  Brown  was  seen 
sleeping  as  calmly  as  a  child  on  a  billiard  table  in  the  room.' 


'  Henry  de  Groot,  first  Census  Marshal  Nevada  Territory. 

«  Frank  Soule,  May  25,  1860,  Correspondent  San  Francisco  Alts. 

'James  Morgan,  eye-witness,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 


CHAPTEE   V. 

THE  FOUNDATION  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN. 

To  multiply  scenes  like  this  would  serve  no  useful  purpose,  for  repe- 
tition would  not  convey  a  more  adequate  impression  of  the  camp.  Ross 
Browne  did  not  hesitate  to  liken  its  restless  life  to  the  tumult  of  hell,  and 
his  picture  is  not  greatly  over-colored.  Ruffianism  was  rampant,  and  a 
writer  could  scarcely  exaggerate  the  turbulence  of  the  surface  life ;  yet 
much  of  the  noise  and  turmoil  was  empty  sound.  Thus  the  street 
exchanges  which  had  the  most  striking  semblance  to  pandemonium  were 
really  harmless  stock  marts,  and  buyers  and  sellers  acted  no  more 
insanely  than  the  concourse  of  howling  brokers  who  buy  and  sell  in  the 
present  stock  boards.  It  was  the  incongruity  of  the  scene  which  affected 
an  observer  so  deeply.  A  troop  of  chattering  gamblers  were  troubling  the 
peace  of  the  desert  hills,  and  when  stillness  so  profound  was  broken  by 
such  discordant  sounds,  one  almost  looked  to  see  an  outraged  spirit  start 
from  the  rocks  with  a  warning  procul  jprofani.  To  parallel  the  scene  the 
New  York  Stock  Exchange  must  be  transported  to  the  top  of  Mount  Rigi, 
as  a  looker-on  suggested,  and  even  that  miracle  would  fall  short  of  the 
strange  reality,  for  no  organized  body  of  gamblers  could  be  so  oddly 
assorted  as  the  people  of  this  mining  camp,  united  only  by  one  tie  of 
sympathy. 

The  gambling  fever,  affecting  its  victims  generally  with  delirious 
blindness,  and  spreading  from  Virginia  City  to  San  Francisco,  received  its 
first  check  toward  the  end  of  April,  1860.  As  was  natural,  San  Francisco, 
lying  at  a  distance  from  the  immediate  seat  of  the  disorder,  was  the  first 
to  recover  partially  from  its  effects.  This  convalescence  was  commented 
upon  with  some  bitter  humor  by  a  correspondent  of  the  San  Francisco 
Evening  Bulletin,  gravely  styled  an  "  Old  Resident  of  Washoe,"  by  the 
Bulletin  editor,  who  wrote  from  Virginia  City  under  date  of  May  8,  1860 : 

"  We  are  informed  that  there  is  a  panic  in  San  Francisco  in  relation 

(77) 


78  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

to  our  mining  stocks ;  that  nothing  will  sell ;  that  even  Ophir,  Washoe, 
Chollar,  and  Corsair  are  drugs  in  the  market ;  that  banks  won't  discount 
Washoe  speculators'  paper  ;  that  Lady  Bryan  sells  for  $15  and  Rogers  for 
|40 ;  that  the  bottom  has  fallen  out,  confidence  gone,  and  that  there  is  a 
general  collapse. 

"  Two  months  ago  these  wise  men  of  Gotham,  who  are  now  decrying 
the  mineral  resources  of  Washoe,  went  to  sea  in  a  bowl  and  got  badly  wet. 

"  Two  months  ago  everything  would  sell.  People  bought  blindly  in 
the  'Bob  Ridley,'  'You  Bet,'  'Last  Chance,'  and  the  'Bob-tail  Nag.' 
Where  they  were  located,  what  was  the  character  of  the  rock,  who  the 
locators,  what  the  title,  was  not  a  matter  of  inquiry. 

"  The  price  and  number  of  feet  were  only  matters  of  interest  to  the 
greedy  buyer ;  fools  at  your  end  of  the  telegraph  were  deceived  by  knaves 
at  our  end,  and  we  sent  you  mysterious  hints  of  new  discoveries  that 
never  existed,  strikes  in  mines  never  located,  accounts  of  sales  which 
never  took  place. 

"  Your  prudent  men,  who  would  not  buy  a  foot  of  land  in  San  Fran- 
cisco or  make  a  loan  without  careful  search  of  title,  have  risked  thousands 
without  a  thought.  Your  greedy  folly  was  taken  advantage  of  by  our 
avarice,  and  you  became  the  victims  of  your  .own  sublime  stupidity  and 
dishonesty.  A  change  comes  and  a  panic.  There  are  prudent  men  in  San 
Francisco  and  honest  men  in  Washoe,  and  when  this  class  of  operators 
had  time  to  exchange  opinions  and  stem  the  current  of  senseless  and 
blind  speculation  it  was  found  that  many  of  the  transactions  in  silver 
mines  were  but  sales  and  exchanges  in  stone  heaps.  The  result  was 
naturally  enough  a  reaction.  Wild-cat  claims  became  valueless  and  good 
claims  staggered  under  the  blow." 

Virginia  City  looked  to  San  Francisco  to  furnish  the  means  for  the 
development  of  its  mines,  for  none  except  the  Ophir,  Mexican,  and  a  short 
line  of  claims  at  Gold  Hill  were  self-supporting  in  1860,  and  the  reckless 
squandering  of  capital  upon  worthless  plots  of  ground  was  in  a  measure 
stopped  by  thg  reaction  in  April.  Some  proof,  indication,  or  probability, 
at  least,  of  the  existence  of  ore  was  afterwards  demanded,  as  a  rule,  before 
actual  money  investments  were  made. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  79 

The  difficulty  still  remained,  that  even  when  such  precaution  was 
taken  it  was  impossible  in  most  instances  to  ascertain  the  real  value  of  the 
claims  without  costly  and  long-continued  explorations.  The  California 
Mercantile  Journal  stated  that  "four  thousand  claims  were  located  within 
a  radius  of  30  miles  around  Virginia  City,  as  nearly  as  the  true  number 
could  be  ascertained,"  and  the  estimate  was  probably  a  fairly  correct 
approximation.^  The  great  majority  of  these  claims  were  evidently  worth- 
less and  would  scarcely  tempt  the  most  ignorant  or  unwary  speculator;  but 
many  of  them  appeared  promising,  and  time  and  money  were  requisite  to 
prove  that  their  outward  show  was  commonly  a  deception.  "Nine  hun- 
dred men  are  engaged  at  present  in  opening  three  hundred  claims.  It  is  an 
established  fact  that  at  least  twenty  valuable  mines  do  exist,  this  number 
being  thoroughly  opened."^  The  writer  in  the  Journal  expressed  himself 
more  cautiously  than  was  usual  at  the  time,  and  yet  experience  has  shown 
that  in  mining  "established  facts"  are  oftentimes  unsupported  fiction. 
Of  the  twenty  thoroughly  opened  and  valuable  mines  less  than  half  have 
ever  yielded  any  return  to  the  labor  and  capital  expended  in  their  devel- 
opment ;  of  the  four  mines  of  high  repute  cited  by  the  correspondent  of 
the  Bulletin,  as  if  their  value  should  be  above  suspicion  or  question, 
two — Washoe  and  Corsair — were  absolutely  worthless. 

In  order  to  abate  the  speculative  fever  effectually,  careful  examina- 
tions of  the  claims  by  trained  and  honest  observers  were  requisite,  and 
systematic  explorations  should  have  been  made  to  determine  mooted  points; 
but  at  that  time  few  competent  mineralogists  and  practical  silver  ledge 
miners  were  on  the  ground  and  the  waste  of  time  and  money  was  therefore 
inevitable.  Few  claims  were  steadily  or  systematically  developed,  but  the 
random  ignorant  search  of  the  previous  year  was  continued.  The  hills 
were  gashed  with  rude  cuts  in  every  direction  for  miles  around,  and  heaps 
of  coarse  yellow  sand  and  rocks  defaced  the  sage-brush  covering,  chang- 
ing to  pale-green  in  the  early  summer,  and  sprinkled  with  myriad  sun- 
flowers. 

On  the  line  of  the  Comstock  ledge  the  inclines  sunk  by  the  Ophir, 

'  California  Mercantile  Journal,  1860.  Vide  Appendix — Table  of  Recorded  Locations,  Virginia  and  Gold 
Hill  districts,  1859,  1880. 

'California  Mercantile  Journal,  1860. 


80  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Mexican,  and  Central  mining  companies  were  advanced  to  a  depth  of  50 
feet,  when  water  began  to  flow  into  the  shafts  so  rapidly  that  further  pro- 
gress in  depth  was  deferred  for  the  time  and  drifts  were  cut  along  the 
course  of  the  sulphuret  vein.  The  accumulating  water  was  drained  out 
through  small  adits  cut  to  the  foot  of  the  inclines  from  points  below  the 
croppings.^ 

To  the  north  and  south  of  these  three  claims  adits  were  cut  with  the 
view  of  striking  the  ledge  at  a  depth  of  from  30  to  100  feet,  not  only 
because  this  was  judged  to  be  the  cheapest  and  most  efficient  method  of 
prospecting  the  ledge,  but  because  the  croppings  and  subsoil  rock  on 
many  claims  yielded  little  or  nothing,  and  it  was  believed  that  the  quartz 
would  prove  richer  at  a  distance  from  the  surface.^  Little  timbering  was 
done  in  these  adits,  which  were  rarely  more  than  seven  feet  high  and  five 
feet  wide;  but  the  roof  was  supported  when  timbers  were  needed  by  two 
upright  posts  and  a  cap. 

Rude  as  were  these  early  workings,  yet  where  so  much  ledge-cutting 
was  done  the  aggregate  ore  product  was  naturally  considerable.  How  to 
dispose  of  it  became  the  most  pressing  question  of  the  day. 

It  was  evident  at  the  outset  that  the  mines  could  not  be  opened  with 
success  unless  a  cheap  method  of  reducing  the  ore  was  devised.  The 
capitalists  who  had  bought  the  ledges  would  have  spent  their  money  to 
better  advantage  in  buying  the  rocks  on  the  Pacific  beaches,  if  the  gangue 
could  not  be  worked  at  a  profit.  The  problem  presented  was  not  an  easy 
one  to  solve.  Reduction  by  smelting  was  the  most  effective  process,  but 
this  was  barred,  except  in  the  case  of  the  richest  ore,  by  the  cost  of  fuel, 
labor,  and  transportation.  Some  ore  had  been  reduced  in  arrastras,  but 
that  method  was  slow  at  the  best  and  could  only  be  employed  to  advan- 
tage in  working  gold-bearing  quartz  on  a  small  scale.  Whether  the  Com- 
stock  ledge  ore  could  be  profitably  or  successfully  reduced  by  other  known 
processes  was  an  undecided  question. 

The  free  gold  in  the  Californian  quartz  ledges  had  been  extracted  by 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  23,  1860.  Letter  from  J.  W.  Simonton,  Corresponding  Editor 
Carson  City,  April  13,  1860.     San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  July  11,  December  13,  1860. 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  February  25,  1860.  List  of  Tunnels  and  Shafts,  from  E.  E.  Brewster's 
Diagram. 


rOUNDATIOiSr  OP  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  gl 

simply  crushing  the  rock  under  iron  stamps  lifted  by  cams  on  a  revolving 
shaft,  while  the  powdered  quartz  was  washed  away  by  a  flowing  stream  of 
water  over  mercurialized  copper  plates  and  blanket-sluices.  The  silver 
sulphurets  and  sulphates  of  the  new  mining  district  could  not  be  reduced, 
however,  by  this  primitive  and  simple  process.  Another  method  must  be 
employed. 

A  hundred  years  before,  Don  Francisco  Zavier  de  Gamboa  had 
strongly  commended  the  process  of  reduction  by  the  use  of  the  cazo  or 
kettle  as  the  most  speedy  method  of  extracting  the  silver  from  ore.  In 
this  process  the  ore  was  first  ground  as  finely  as  possible  under  the  stamps 
of  a  mill  driven  by  water  or  horse-power.  The  stamps  were  simply  six 
wooden  posts  with  iron  heads  placed  in  a  row  and  made  to  fall  repeatedly, 
by  means  of  a  simple  adjustment,  upon  a  layer  of  ore  at  the  bottom  of  a 
large  wooden  mortar  or  trough  lined  with  iron.  The  powdered  ore  was 
dashed  by  the  fall  of  the  stamps  through  iron  sieves  inserted  in  the  side 
of  the  mortar  bed  or  in  simple  hoppers  attached.^  When  the  ore  had 
been  thoroughly  ground,  a  c|uintal  in  weight  of  the  powder  was  taken  and 
mixed  with  salt,  water,  and  quicksilver  in  certain  proportions,  which 
varied  with  the  character  of  the  ore.  The  pasty  mass  was  then  placed  in 
a  copper  pan  or  kettle  over  a  fire  and  constantly  stirred  in  order  to 
insure  an  intimate  mixture  of  its  constituent  parts.  While  boiling  the 
pulp  it  was  tested  from  time  to  time  to  ascertain  whether  it  required  any 
further  addition  of  mercury  or  salt.  Alonzo  Barba,  a  priest  of  Potosi, 
had  further  suggested  the  use  of  a  single  furnace  to  heat  four  pans,  thus 
economizing  the  consumption  of  fuel.-  The  mixture  in  the  pans  was 
allowed  to  boil  during  four  hours,  when  it  was  considered  that  the  pulp 
had  been  thoroughly  amalgamated,  and  the  slime  was  separated  from  the 
amalgam  by  washing  the  contents  of  the  pans  in  vats  of  water. 

This  well-approved  method,  described  by  Gamboa,  was  in  general  use 
in  Mexico  and  Peru  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  Gomstock  mines. 
In  many  details  it  was  clumsy  and  comparatively  ineffective,  but  during 
the  century  which  had  passed  since  the  appearance  of  Gamboa's  treatise 

'  Gamboa's  Commentai-ies,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  II,  p.  200. 
2 Ibid.,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  II.  p.  -203. 
6  H   c 


82  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

no  material  improvement  had  been  devised,  and  it  remained  for  the 
inventive  talent  of  Californians  to  develop  and  perfect  the  process. 

The  clumsy  wooden  stamps  fastened  rigidly  to  a  beam  had  been 
replaced  in  1853  by  symmetrical  iron  cylinders,  raised  by  cams  attached 
to  a  revolving  shaft,^  and  the  iron  plates  or  shoes  at  the  lower  ends  of  these 
cylinders  were  so  constructed  as  to  be  readily  removed  and  fitted  with  a 
new  set  when  the  old  were  worn  out. 

In  1858  Israel  W.  Knox,  of  San  Francisco,  had  designed  a  light  iron 
pan  4  feet  in  diameter  and  14  inches  deep,  which  would  hold  a  charge  of 
pulp  weighing  about  250  pounds.  To  stir  the  pulp  a  light  iron  muller 
was  used,  resting  on  iron  dies  at  the  bottom  of  the  pan,  the  total  weight 
of  muller  and  ring  being  125  pounds.  Copper  cross-boards  were  attached 
to  the  sides  of  the  pan  to  make  the  reduction  of  the  ore  more  speedy,  as 
it  was  noticed  that  the  amalgam  was  attracted  by  these  copper  plates 
immersed  in  the  moving  mass  of  pulp,  and  could  be  easily  scraped  off 
from  their  surfaces  when  the  plates  had  become  coated.  Mr.  Knox  had 
no  thought,  however,  of  attempting  to  grind  the  crushed  ore  still  more 
finely  between  the  surfaces  of  his  muller  and  dies.^  His  muller  was 
designed  to  circle  about  slowly  in  the  pulp,  making  only  twelve  or  thirteen 
revolutions  per  minute,  and  to  insure  an  intimate  mixture  of  the  crushed 
ore  and  mercury  with  a  ligneous  acid  which  he  expected  would  prove  of 
marked  service  in  the  process  of  amalgamation.  The  acid  was  soon  dis- 
carded, but  the  pan  was  found  to  be  fairly  serviceable  for  the  reduction  of 
gold-bearing  quartz,  and  the  Miners'  Foundry  at  San  Francisco,  estab- 
lished during  the  winter  of  1859-'60  by  William  H.  Rowland,  Horace  B. 
Angell  and  E.  T.  King,  received  a  number  of  orders  from  various  mills  in 
California  for  sets  of  this  design.^ 

Shortly  after  the  opening  of  this  foundry  another  inventor,  Henry 
Brevoort,  an  ingenious  mill  proprietor  of  Sonora,  Tuolumne  county,  Cal- 
ifornia, sent  a  set  of  castings  to  its  proprietors,  somewhat  clumsy  in  form 
but  embodying  an  original  idea  in  pan  construction.*    Brevoort's  pan  was 

'First  irou  straight  frame  battery  constructed  for  Joseph  Moore  in  1853.  First  rotary  frame  battery 
constructed  in  1858.     11.  B.  ingell  and  William  H.  Howland,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

^Israel  W.  Knox.  'H.  B.  Angell;  W.  H.  Howland,  San  Francisco,  California. 

"U.  S.  Patent  Office  Reports,  1859,  No.  25,243. 


FOUNDATION  OP  A  GEEAT  MINING  TOWN.  83 

fitted  with  a  heavy  muller  and  ring  weighing  1,400  pounds  when  the  shoes 
were  attached,  and  expressly  designed  to  grind  the  pulp  more  finely  than 
it  could  be  pulverized  by  the  stamps.  The  ore  was  to  be  crushed  wet  in 
the  battery  and  thence  conducted  into  the  pan,  where  it  was  ground  and 
amalgamated. 

The  heavy  rotating  muller  of  Brevoort  with  central  openings  was 
not,  strictly  speaking,  a  novel  invention,  as  a  similar  design  had  been 
described  by  Overman,^  and  J.  E.  Clayton  afterward  testified  under  oath 
that  he  had  constructed  a  machine  for  the  reduction  of  gold  ores  in  Talla- 
hoosa,  Alabama,  as  early  as  1845,  embodying  substantially  the  same  prin- 
ciple;^ still,  as  no  pans  of  this  design  had  ever  been  adopted  for  general 
use  in  the  reduction  of  ores,  and  Brevoort  had  undoubtedly  fashioned  his 
muller  without  knowledge  of  the  previous  application  of  the  same  princi- 
ple, except  in  the  rude  Mexican  arrastra,  he  is  entitled  to  whatever  credit  is 
due  for  its  introduction.  Moreover,  Clayton's  grinding  muller  was  stone, 
and  in  the  substitution  of  iron  Brevoort  had  made  a  change  of  no  slight 
importance.  His  use  of  a  solution  of  nitrate  of  mercury,  in  connection 
with  a  galvanic  battery,  to  facilitate  amalgamation  in  the  pan^  was,  per- 
haps, equally  ingenious  in  conception,  but  has  so  far  been  discarded  in 
practice.* 

The  application  to  the  reduction  of  silver  ores  of  the  Brevoort  method 
of  grinding  the  pulp  between  iron  surfaces  was  yet  to  be  made.  It  is 
probable  that  the  inventor  had  no  notion  of  the  important  assistance 
rendered  to  the  process  of  amalgamation  by  the  presence  in  the  pulp  of 
the  fine  particles  of  iron,  which  were  chafed  away  by  the  friction  between 
the  grinding  faces  of  the  muller  and  dies.  He  thought  only  of  reducing 
the  pulp-sand  as  finely  as  possible  in  order  to  insure  the  contact  of  the 
mercury  with  the  most  minute  particles  of  gold.  Yet  he  advanced  the 
process  of  silver  ore  reduction  a  long  step  by  finely  pulverizing  the  pulp, 

'  Overman's  Metallurgy,  p.  267. 

"Suit  of  Thomas  Vamey  vs.  Zenas  Wheeler  et  al.,  1864,  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  for  Northern  District  of  Cali- 
forcia. 

2  Report  of  Commissioner  of  Patents,  1859,  vol.  I,  p.  559— Gold  Amalgamator,  Patent  No.  25,242,  issued 
August  30,  1859. 

■*  The  first  pan  of  the  Brevoort  model  constructed  by  the  Miners'  Foundry  was  cast  to  fill  an  order  received 
from  the  Herbertville  Quartz  Mining  Company,  dated  December  11,  1859,  though  the  inventor  had  one  of  his 
own  pans  in  practical  operation  at  an  earlier  date. — (Order  Books,  Miners'  Foundry,  1859-60.) 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE  COM8TOCK  LODE. 

by  loroducing  heat  and  certain  serviceable  electrical  conditions  through 
the  instrumentality  of  friction,  and  by  substituting  iron  for  the  more  costly 
metal  (mercury)  as  an  absorbent  of  the  freed  chlorine. 

The  patterns  from  the  castings  furnished  by  Brevoort  had  scarcely 
been  made  when  the  device  of  a  third  inventor  was  brought  to  the  Miners' 
Foundry.^  Selim  E.  Woodworth,  of  San  Francisco,  had  conceived  the 
idea  of  a  pan  in  which  steam  should  be  introduced  into  the  pulp  through 
the  hollow  arms  of  a  revolving  muller.  Orders  were  given  to  the  Miners' 
Foundry  on  March  29,  1860,^  for  working  pans  of  this  pattern  by  the 
inventor  and  the  firm  of  Ward,  Curtis  &  Woodworth,  who  had  a  quartz 
mill  at  North  Beach,  San  Francisco,  at  the  time. 

On  the  combination  of  the  principles  outlined  by  the  inventors  of  these 
early  pans  the  Washoe  pan  process  is  based.  In  the  Spring  of  1860,  how- 
ever, their  designs  were  still  uncombined  and  crude.  Brevoort  did  not 
contemplate  the  introduction  of  steam,  and  the  mullers  of  Woodworth 
and  Knox  were  light  and  not  intended  for  service  as  grinding  instruments. 
When  the  first  order  was  given  for  mill  machinery  to  be  shipped  to  the 
Washoe  mining  district,  the  proprietors  of  the  Miners'  Foundry  were  not 
prepared  to  recommend  any  more  serviceable  pans  than  that  invented  by 
Mr.  Knox. 

Almarin  B.  Paul,  an  enterprising  mill-owner  in  the  city  of  Nevada, 
Cal.,  had  been  strongly  urged  by  his  friends,  who  had  bought  claims  in 
the  Washoe  district,  to  build  a  mill  in  the  vicinity  of  the  mines  and 
attempt  the  reduction  of  the  ore  from  the  ledges.^  Impressed  by  their 
representations,  he  visited  the  district  in  the  autumn  of  1859  and  took 
back  with  him  to  his  mill  in  California  sample  sacks  of  the  ore  from  the 
mines  of  the  Mexican  and  Ophir  companies.  After  a  few  careful  experi- 
ments in  reducing  this  selected  quartz  he  determined  to  undertake  its 
reduction  on  a  large  scale.  His  venture  was  a  hazardous  one.  To  capi- 
talists generally  it  seemed  a  foolish  investment.  The  leading  assayers 
of  San  Francisco  laughed  at  his  project  and  predicted  failure;  the  Ophir 
and  Mexican  companies  refused  to  make  contracts  with  him  for  the  reduc- 
tion of  their  ore,  although  hundreds  of  tons  of  quartz  were  lying  on  the 

'  W.  H.  Howland,  H.  B.  Angell.        « Order  Book,  Miners'  Foundry,  1860.        »  Almarin  B.  Paul,  1880. 


FOUNDATIOX  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  85 

surface  of  their  claims  rich  in  gold  and  silver  yet  too  poor  to  pay  the 
cost  of  removal  and  smelting,  but,  in  spite  of  all  obstacles,  Paul's  reso- 
lution Avas  unshaken.  He  persuaded  some  friends  to  unite  with  him  in 
subscribing  the  requisite  capital,  and  the  Washoe  Gold  and  Silver  Mining 
Company  No.  1  was  formed  in  the  month  of  March,  1860.^ 

Under  their  direction  Paul  began  at  once  to  build  the  proposed  milk 
The  crushed  ore  could  not  be  reduced  without  water,  but  the  little  streams 
flowing  down  the  canons  were  already  held  by  parties  of  miners  and  a  fresh 
supply  must  be  obtained  from  some  quarter.  Four  miles  south  from 
Virginia  City,  near  Gold  Canon,  was  a  little  basin,  the  centre  of  drainage 
from  the  surrounding  hills.  With  the  quick  eye  of  a  practical  mill-man 
this  spot  was  selected  as  a  building  site.  A  shaft  was  sunk  to  the  depth 
of  50  feet  and  a  cross-drift  cut  in  the  bed-rock  100  feet  in  length.  Water 
trickled  into  this  T-shaped  chamber  until  the  well  was  nearly  full,  and  one 
difficulty  was  thus  removed.  Meanwhile  contracts  were  secured  from 
owners  of  claims  on  Gold  Hill  to  crush  and  reduce  9,000  tons  of  ore  at 
from  $25  to  $30  per  ton — if  the  quartz  would  yield  a  surplus  profit  to  the 
owners  at  this  rate. 

In  order  to  obtain  this  concession  Mr.  Paul  was  obliged  to  pledge  the 
completion  of  his  mill  in  sixty  days  from  the  date  of  the  signature  of  the 
contracts,  June  12,  1860.  Work  on  the  mill-site  had  been  begun  on  May 
25,  1860;  the  mill  machinery  had  been  ordered,  by  letter  dated  Virginia 
City  June  7,  1860,  of  Howland,  Angell  &  King,  and  the  order  had  scarcely 
been  received  when  the  contracts  were  signed;  still,  he  did  not  hesitate 
to  take  the  risk,  but  pressed  the  work  with  all  possible  energy.  The  San 
Francisco  firm  rivaled  him  in  dispatch.  The  completed  castings  were 
forwarded  by  steamer  to  Sacramento,  and  from  that  point  by  wagon-trains 
over  the  Sierras.  Through  the  snow,  rocks,  and  mire  of  the  old  emigrant 
trail  the  straining  mules,  urged  on  by  curses  and  blows,  dragged  the  iron 
freight  to  the  basin  in  the  hills,  where  he  was  anxiously  awaiting  its  arrival. 
He  had  built  rude  stone  foundations  for  the  stamp-batteries  and  was 
covering  the  walls  of  a  rough  framework  shed  over  them  with  boards  from 


'Henry  de  Groot's  "Pioneer  Mills  and  Mill   Men."      Company  formally  incorporated  June   11,   1880, 
Almarin  B.  Paul. 


86  HISTOET  OF  THE  OOMSTOCK  LODE. 

a  forest  twenty  miles  away.  The  distance  was  not  great,  but  this  lumber 
was  cut  on  a  mountain  slope,  hauled  to  a  saw-mill  overpressed  with  work 
though  running  night  and  day,  and  at  length  dragged  up  a  rocky  canon 
to  the  site  of  the  mill,  where  it  was  put  together  with  nails  brought  on  the 
backs  of  mules  across  the  mountains.  The  cost  of  transportation  from 
San  Francisco  to  the  mill  far  exceeded  the  original  cost  of  the  machinery, 
ranging  from  13  to  25  cents  per  pound.  Lumber  was  $60  per  M  at  the 
saw-mill,  and  this  price  was  more  than  doubled  by  the  added  charge  for 
delivery  at  Gold  Canon.  These  extraordinary  expenses  did  not  delay  the 
work  of  construction,  for  the  mill  must  be  completed  at  any  price  within 
the  allotted  time.  So  rapidly  did  Paul  and  his  men  carry  on  the  task  that 
the  first  steam-whistle  heard  on  the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierras  was  blown 
by  his  engineer,  William  H.  Baker,  on  the  9th  of  August,  and  the  24- 
battery  stamps  of  his  mill  began  to  crush  ore  on  the  11th  of  the  same 
month,  the  last  day  allowed  for  the  fulfillment  of  his  contract.^ 

Toward  the  close  of  the  work  he  had  been  pressed  hard  by  two  other 
enterprising  mill  owners,  Charles  S.  Coover  and  Elias  B.  Harris,  who 
exerted  themselves  in  friendly  competition  to  gain  the  honor  of  erecting 
the  first  mill  in  the  district.^  Their  mill  was  a  smaller  one,  containing 
one  battery  of  eight  stamps  only,  but  their  machinery  was  ordered  later, 
June  21,  1860,  and  the  contest  for  precedence  was  so  close  that  their 
machinery  was  set  in  motion  three  hours  after  Paul's  mill  began  work.^ 

These  two  mills  were  thus  completed,  but  the  question  of  their  service- 
ability was  yet  unanswered.  The  first  ore  worked  was  five  tons  of  tail- 
ings, refuse  rock  previously  discarded  by  men  who  had  attempted  to  reduce 
it  in  arastras  and  rockers,  from  the  claim  of  Rice  &  Co.,  on  Gold  Hill,  a 
portion  of  the  50  feet  located  by  James  Finney.  The  mortar  or  bed  of  the 
battery  was  surrounded  by  a  wire  bolting-cloth,  through  which  the  ore 

'Almarin  B.Paul;  Virginia  Cify  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  11,  1860.  William  H.  Howland,San 
Francisco,  Cal.;  Comstock  Papers,  No.  15 ;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  February  3,  1877. 

^In  October,  1859,  a  small  frame  battery  of  four  stamps  had  been  placed  on  the  Carson  River,  near  the  foot 
of  Gold  Canon,  by  two  Californians,  Hugh  Logan  and  J.  P.  Holmes.  The  stamps  were  lifted  by  horse-power  and 
crushed  ore  until  the  work  was  stopped  by  storms,  for  there  was  no  mill  building  or  shelter  over  the  battery. 
This  was  unquestionably  the  first  stamp  battery  brought  across  the  Sierras,  but  it  could  only  be  called  a  mill  by 
courtesy.  (J.  R.  Logan,  brother  of  Hugh  Logan,  and  several  old  residents  of  Dayton,  Nevada.  The  Big  Bonanza, 
p.  69.    Nevada  Directory,  1863,  J.  W.  Kelly,  compiler.) 

'  Wm.  H.  Howland;  testimony  under  oath  ;  Sacramento  Union,  August  15,  1850. 


FOUNDATIOX  OF  A  GEBAT  MINING  TOWN.  87 

crushed  dry  was  dashed  in  a  misty  cloud  by  the  fall  of  the  stamps,  drop- 
ping on  a  platform  outside.  Here  the  powder  was  dampened  sufficiently 
to  admit  of  its  removal  in  shovels  to  the  pans,  where  it  was  mixed  with 
water  and  mercury,  and  the  pulp  thus  formed  was  ground  by  the  revolving 
mullers.'  Each  pan  held  about  300  pounds  of  ore  and  40  pounds  of  mer- 
cury, and  with  each  charge  a  pint  of  salt  and  a  few  ounces  of  copper 
filings  or  sulphate  of  copper  were  used.^  Water  was  conducted  to  the 
pans  by  pipes  leading  from  a  tank  heated  slightly  by  the  exhaust  steam 
from  the  driving-engine.  The  copper  cross-boards  in  the  pans  were 
scraped  twice  a  day,  and  the  amalgam  collecting  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pan  was  drawn  off  at  intervals  through  a  discharge  hole.  When  a  suffi- 
cient quantity  was  thus  obtained  it  was  strained  through  a  buckskin  bag 
until  the  liquid  mercury  was  pressed  out  and  a  pasty  mass  was  left  in  the 
bag  ready  for  retorting.  Placed  in  a  closed  iron  vessel  over  a  fire  this 
paste  was  steadily  heated  until  the  remaining  mercury  passed  off  in  vapor 
through  a  pipe  into  a  condensing  chamber,  where,  upon  cooling,  it  assumed 
its  original  metallic  form.  The  bullion  alloy  of  gold  and  silver  remained  - 
in  the  retort. 

This  process  was  watched  by  Paul  with  natural  anxiety.  Failure 
had  been  so  persistently  predicted  that  his  associates  in  the  company  had 
become  disheartened,  and  he  had  resorted  to  entreaty,  ridicule,  and  pro- 
test in  order  to  induce  them  to  hold  to  their  contract.  His  pride  and 
purse  were  alike  staked  on  the  issue  of  the  trial.  Accordingly,  he  awaited 
eagerly  the  report  of  the  Virginia  City  assayers,  Ruhling  &  Co.  The  five 
tons  yielded  |84.56  (gold,  .954  fine,  valued  at  $63.63 ;  silver,  .810  fine, 
valued  at  $20.98,)  or  an  average  return  of  $16.91  per  ton.  This  product 
from  refuse  ore  was  accounted  satisfactory,  and  he  proceeded  to  crush 
and  reduce  ten  tons  of  average  rock  from  the  same  claim,  which  yielded 
in  gold  $387.02  and  in  silver  $163.97— in  all  $550.99,  or  $55.07  per  ton. 

Interest  in  the  work  was  then  awakened  throughout  the  camp.  The 
Lucerne  Company  desired  a  test,  and  ten  tons  of  selected  quartz  from 
their  ledge  produced  $1,427.91,  or  $142.79  per  ton.     Joseph  Plato  sent 


'  J.  W.  Simonlon,  CorrespondiDg  Editor  Sun  Francisco  Bulletin,  September  20,  1860. 
'Almarin  15.  Paul,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 


88  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

down  seven  tons  from  his  claim  at  Gold  Hill  and  received  a  return  of 
1449.60.  The  firm  of  Logan  &  Holmes,  who  had  contracted  with  Paul  to 
crush  and  reduce  4,000  tons  from  their  claim,  comprising  the  Gold  Hill 
location  of  John  Bishop  and  a  portion  of  the  Finney  location  adjacent, 
sent  eighteen  tons  to  the  mill,  which  yielded  $1,884.30,  or  $104.30  per 
ton  in  bullion. 

The  secret  of  Paul's  comparative  success  in  reducing  the  ores  of  the 
new  district  lay  in  the  fact  that  his  tests  were  mainly  with  quartz  which 
was  far  richer  in  gold  than  it  was  in  silver.  The  Gold  Hill  ledges  and 
spurs  for  many  feet  below  the  surface  were  rather  gold-bearing. than  silver 
lodes,  and  as  long  as  this  relative  proportion  endured,  even  if  the  silver  was 
mainly  lost,  a  rich  return  in  gold  could  be  obtained  from  the  ore.  If  he 
had  attempted  to  reduce  the  rich  sulphurets  of  the  Ophir  claim  with  his 
crude  process,  the  results  of  his  trials  would  not  have  proved  satisfactory, 
but  if  the  gold-bearing  quartz  could  only  be  obtained  in  sufficient  quan- 
tities, he  had  demonstrated  the  possibility  of  reducing  it  with  profit  to 
both  miner  and  mill-man.  As  soon  as  this  fact  was  made  evident  his 
batteries  w^ere  kept  in  motion  night  and  day.  The  little  eight-stamp  mill 
of  Coover  and  Harris  did  equally  satisfactory  work,  and  the  report  of  the 
results  obtained  spread  through  the  camp  and  to  San  Francisco.'  The 
Washoe  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company  No.  1  at  once  contracted  for  the 
building  of  another  larger  mill,  of  sixty-four  stamps,  at  a  point  nearer  Gold 
Hill.  This  contract  was  carried  out  with  the  same  energy  which  had 
characterized  the  equipment  of  the  first  mill,  and  the  new  works  were  com- 
pleted on  the  4th  of  January,  1861,  in  ninety  days  from  the  signature  of 
the  contract,  at  a  cost  of  $150,000.- 

While  these  mills  were  building,  some  work  which  deserved  the  name 
of  mining  was  in  progress  on  several  claims.  The  Ophir  Mining  Com- 
pany, as  soon  as  the  development  of  their  mine  was  delayed  by  the  influx 
of  water  at  the  50-foot  level,  transported  from  San  Francisco  a  small 
steam-engine,  indicated  at  15  horse-power,  the  first  on  the  lode.  By  the 
aid  of  this  engine  hoisting  a  tank  fitted  with  a  spindle-valve  at  its  bottom 
their  incline  was  continued  along  the  dip  of  the  ledge,  while  an  adit  was 


'Territorial  Enterprise,  SeptemliHr '22.  18)0.  '^Alrnariii  B.  Paul,  Saii  l''i-ancisco,  Cal. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  89 

contracted  for  by  the  Alexican,  California,  Central,  and  Ophir  companies 
to  drain  the  ledge  to  the  depth  of  200  feet.^  Work  upon  this  adit,  the 
''  Union  Tunnel,"  was  begun  June  8, 1860,  and  pushed  night  and  day  until, 
on  October  17,  1860,  the  lode  was  cut  in  the  claim  of  the  Central  Mining 
Company  155  feet  below  the  surface."  This  adit,  1,100  feet  long,  4  feet 
wide,  and  5i  feet  high  in  the  clear,  was  completed  at  a  cost  of  $10,000,  or 
$9  per  foot,  and:  was  accounted  a  notable  mining  work  in  1860.  It  was 
soon  connected  with  the  inclines,  and  the  work  of  development  on  the 
ledge  down  to  its  level  was  considered  an  easy  task,  but  the  water  was 
scarcely  drained  off  when  a  second  difficulty  was  encountered. 

At  the  50-f6ot  level  the  vein  of  black  sulphurets  was  only  3  or  4  feet 
thick,  and  could  be  readily  extracted  through  a  drift  along  its  line,  prop- 
ping up  the  walls  and  roof  when  necessary  by  simple  uprights  and  cap- 
posts.'^  As  the  ledge  descended  the  sulphuret  vein  grew  broader  until,  ai 
the  depth  of  175  feet,  it  was  65  feet  in  width,  and  the  miners  were  at  a 
loss  how  to  proceed,*  for  the  ore  was  so  soft  and  crumbling  that  pillars 
could  not  be  used  to  support  the  roof  as  in  coal  mines.  They  spliced 
timber  together  to  hold  up  the  caving  ground ;  but  these  jointed  props 
were  too  weak  and  ill  supported  to  withstand  the  pressure  upon  them,  and 
were  constantly  broken  and  thrown  out  of  place.^  The  dilemma  was  a 
curious  one.  Surrounded  by  riches,  they  were  yet  unable  to  carry  them 
off  and  their  mass  of  black  sulphurets  bade  fair  to  become  a  white  elephant 
on  their  hands.  The  Ophir  Company  began  to  wish  themselves  less  for- 
tunate, as  their  miners  narrowly  escaped  burial  day  after  day  in  their 
attempts  to  slope  out  the  ore. 

A  young  mining  engineer,  Philip  Deidesheimer,  was  in  charge  of  a 
quartz  mine  in  Georgetown,  El  Dorado  County,  Cal.,  in  the  autumn  of 
1860,  when  this  serious  check  to  the  development  of  the  lode  occurred. 
At  the  request  of  William  F.  Babcock,  a  trustee  of  the  Ophir  Company. 
Mr.  Deidesheimer  left  his  California  mine  and  crossed  the  mountains  with 


'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  June  14,  1860. 
'■^  San  Francisco  Evening  Bnlletin,  Octobei-  24,  1860. 
^Sacramento  Union,  December  12,  1859. 

■■San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  July  11,  1860;  Philip  Deidesheimer,  Superintendent  Hale  &  Norrross 
S.  M.  Cnm)>any,  1880. 

^William  Wright,  Big  Bonanza,  p.  135. 


90  HTSTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

a  letter  from  the  directors  of  the  Ophir  Company,  authorizing  him  to 
inspect  the  workings  of  their  mines  and  make  such  changes  in  the  method 
of  timbering  as  should  seem  to  lum  expedient.  After  examining  the  vein 
he  designed,  in  the  course  of  a  few  weeks,  a  system  of  timbering  which 
proved  to  be  exactly  adapted  to  the  requirements  of  the  work.^  Experi- 
ments which  he  had  previously  made  in  California  gravel  and  quartz 
mines  furnished  the  outline  of  his  plan.  This  was  to  frame  timbers 
together  in  rectangular  sets,  each  set  Ijeing  composed  of  a  square  base, 
placed  horizontally,  formed  of  four  timbers,  sills,  and  cross-pieces  from 
4  to  6  feet  long,  surmounted  at  the  corners  by  four  posts  from  6  to  7 
feet  high,  and  capped  by  a  frame-work  similar  to  the  base.^  The  cap- 
pieces  forming  the  top  of  any  set  were  at  the  same  time  the  sills  or  base 
of  the  next  set  above.  These  sets  could  readily  be  extended  to  any  required 
height  and  over  any  given  area,  forming  a  series  of  horizontal  floors, 
built  up  from  the  bottom  sets  like  the  successive  stories  of  a  house.  The 
spaces  between  the  timbers  were  filled  with  waste  rock  or  with  wooden 
braces,  forming  a  solid  cube  whenever  the  maximum  degree  of  firmness 
was  desired. 

By  adjustments  of  these  sets  the  ore  bodies  along  the  line  of  the  lode 
were  extracted  with  comparative  ease  and  security.  The  early  appliances 
for  removing  the  ore  and  waste  rock  were  of  the  simplest  kind.  The 
Ophir  engine  could  pull  a  small  iron  car  loaded  with  the  rock  up  the 
incline;  but  in  other  mines  the  rock  was  raised  to  the  surface  in  buckets 
through  the  shafts  by  means  of  a  rope  and  windlass,  or  carried  out 
through  the  adits  in  hand-cars,  pushed  by  miners  over  a  tramway  or 
wooden  flooring.  In  the  Mexican  mine  even  hand-cars  and  buckets  were 
not  made  use  of,  but  the  rock  was  conveyed  to  the  surface  in  raw-hide 
sacks,  bound  with  a  strap  over  the  forehead.'"* 

When  miners  were  employed  by  the  different  companies  in  the  dis- 
trict, they  were  commonly  expert  men,  trained  in  the  mines  of  England, 
California,  or  Mexico;  but  in  the  numerous  claims  worked  by  the  original 
locators  any  man  who  was  strong  enough  to  wield  a  pick  was  accounted 


'  Philip  Deidesheimer. 

'  U.  S.  Geological  Exploration  of  40th  Parallel,  vol.  HI,  Mining  Industry,  pp.  112,  113. 

'Philip  Deidesheimer. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  91 

competent  to  sink  a  shaft  or  cut  an  adit.  Hence  in  many  workings  the 
sides  or  roof  were  frequently  caving  in  upon  the  inexperienced  laborers, 
sometimes  with  fatal  effect;  or,  again,  the  adits  missed  the  line  of  the 
ledge  in  view,  and  the  drifts  and  cross-cuts  were  crooked  and  ill-ventilated. 
When  two  partners  disagreed  in  regard  to  the  best  method  of  developing 
their  prospective  vein,  as  was  often  the  case,  work  begun  on  a  given  line 
by  one  shift  of  men  would  be  abandoned  shortly  afterward  by  the  next 
shift,  who  would  open  their  cut  in  a  new  direction.  Some  claims  were 
harmoniously  and  systematically  worked,  but  the  great  majority  were 
opened  to  suit  the  notions  of  individual  owners,  and  work  was  suspended 
or  pushed  in  accordance  with  the  feeling  of  the  hour.  The  kindly  pro- 
vision of  the  Gold  Hill  district  laws  (article  4,  section  16),  which  allowed 
a  locator  to  hold  a  quartz  claim  for  eighteen  months  after  performing  $15 
of  work  upon  it,  had  been  modified  indeed  by  a  code  adopted  September 
14,  1859,  to  govern  the  development  of  the  mountain  basin  lying  immedi- 
ately north  of  Gold  Hill. 

Virginia  Mining  District  Laws. 

Article  1.  All  quartz  claims  hereafter  located  .shall  be  200  feet  on  the  lead, 
including  all  its  dips  and  angles. 

Art.  2.  All  discoverers  of  new  quartz  veins  shall  be  entitled  to  an  additional  claim 
for  discovery. 

Art.  3.  All  claims  shall  be  designated  by  stakes  and  notices  at  each  corner. 

Art.  4.  All  quartz  claims  shall  be  worked  to  the  amount  of  $10,  or  three  days' 
work  per  month  to  each  claim,  and  the  owner  can  work  to  the  amount  of  $40  as  soon 
after  the  location  of  the  claim  as  he  may  select,  which  amount  being  worked  shall  exempt 
him  from  working  on  said  claim  for  six  months  thereafter. 

Art.  5.  All  quartz  claims  shall  be  designated  and  known  by  a  name  and  in  sections. 

Art.  6.  All  claims  shall  be  properly  recorded  within  ten  days  from  the  time  of 
location. 

Art.  7.  All  claims  recorded  in  the  Gold  Hill  record  and  lying  in  Virginia  District 
shall  be  recorded,  free  of  charge,  in  the  record  of  Virginia  District  upon  the  presentation 
of  a  certificate  from  the  Recorder  of  Gold  Hill  District,  certifying  that  said  claims  have 
been  duly  recorded  in  said  district;  and  said  claims  shall  be  recorded  within  thirty  days 
after  the  passage  of  this  article. 

Art.  8.  (Stricken  out  by  the  meeting.) 

Art.  9.  Surface  and  hill  claims  shall  be  100  feet  square  and  be  designated  by  stakes 
and  notices  at  each  corner. 

Art.  10.  All  ravine  and  gulch  claims  shall  be  100  feet  in  length,  and  in  width 
extend  from  bank  to  bank,  and  be  designated  by  a  stake  and  notice  at  each  end. 


92  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Art.  11.  All  claims  shall  be  worked  within  ten  days  after  water  can  be  had  suffi- 
cient to  work  said  claims. 

Art.  12.  All  ravine,  gulch,  and  surface  claims  shall  be  recorded  within  ten  days 
after  location. 

Art.  ]  3.  All  claims  not  woi  ked  according  to  the  laws  of  this  District  shall  be  for- 
feited and  subject  to  re-location. 

Art.  14.  There  shall  be  a  Recorder  elected  to  hold  his  office  for  the  term  of  twelve 
months,  who  shall  be  entitled  to  the  sum  of  50  cents  for  each  claim  located  and  recorded. 

Art.  15.  The  Recorder  shall  keep  a  book  with  all  the  laws  of  this  District  written 
therein,  which  shall  at  all  times  be  subject  to  the  inspection  of  the  miners  of  said  Dis- 
trict, and  he  is  furthermore  required  to  post  in  two  conspicuous  places  a  copy  of  the  laws 
of  said  District. 

On  motion  it  was 

Resolved,  That  these  laws  be  published  in  the  Territorial  Enterprise  for  one  month. 

Resolved,  That  W.  C.  Campbell  be  declared  the  Recorder  of  this  District. 

W.  C.  CAMPBELL,  Chairman. 
S.  McFADDEN,  Sec'y. 
Virginia,  Sept  14,  1859. 

But  the  requirement  of  three  days'  work  per  month  was  clearly  inad- 
equate, and  even  this  lenient  requisition  was  evaded  without  difficulty,  for 
a  locator  was  suffered  to  hold  his  claim  if  a  witness  would  testify  to  seeing 
him  at  work  upon  it  on  tliree  days  in  the  month,  and  a  few  moments  of 
labor  each  day  would  enable  him  to  obtain  such  a  certificate.  So  easy  of 
evasion  were  the  specifications  of  Article  4,  and  so  inefficient  were  the  pro- 
visions for  their  enforcement,  that  it  is  doubtful  if  the  penalty  of  forfeiture 
for  non-compliance  with  the  laws  was  ever  inflicted,  though  the  violations 
\i'ere  legion. 

Yet,  although  the  development  of  the  mines  was  left  to  the  discretion 
of  the  owners,  the  natural  restlessness  and  energy  of  the  hybrid  Yankee 
temperament  pressed  on  the  work,  unsystematically,  it  is  true,  but  eagerly 
and  rapidly  in  all  promising  claims.  Along  the  supposed  line  of  the 
Comstock  ledge,  at  least,  the  openings  of  shafts  and  adits  dotted  the  sur- 
face like  holes  in  a  rabbit-warren.  In  the  galleries  of  the  Mexican  mine 
the  men  drilled  with  long  bars,  spitting  frequently  in  the  hole  with  a 
peculiar  hiss.^  North  and  south  of  this  claim  for  many  hundred  feet  the 
tapping  of  picks  and  the  report  of  blasts  were  heard  from  daybreak  till 
sundown,  and  in  some  instances  the  work  was  kept  up  through  the  night. 

'  Philip  Deidesheimer,  Siiperinten>leiit  Hale  &  Norcrosa  Mining  Company,  Virginia  City,  Nev. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  93 

The  working  miners  had  few  pleasures  except  the  unfaiUng  resources 
of  gambling  and  drinking.  Prostitution  flourished,  as  in  all  large  camps, 
and  courtesans  promenaded  the  streets  slowly,  decked  out  in  gay  dresses  and 
showy  jewelry,  and  drifting  about  with  the  restless  tide  which  set  to  and  fro 
through  the  city.  Saloons  of  all  descriptions,  from  the  spacious  rooms  fur- 
nished with  walnut  counters,  massive  mirrors,  and  glittering  rows  of  decan- 
ters to  the  cheap  pine  bar  with  its  few  black  bottles,  were  to  be  found  on 
every  street  and  lane  corner.  Each  had  its  special  set  of  customers  besides 
the  chance  passers-by  who  visited  all  indifferently.  Men  of  different  nation- 
al titles,  working  side  by  side  under-ground,  here  first  exhibited  a  clannish 
disposition:  the  Italians  had  their  favorUe  meeting  place;  the  French 
their  "Caf6  de  Paris;"  the  Germans  their  beer-cellars.^  The  Mexican 
miners,  fonder  than  others  of  holidays,  honored  their  patron  saints 
by  striking  work  and  getting  drunk  on  various  anniversaries,  and  com- 
memorated the  declaration  of  their  national  independence  by  an  illumina- 
tion at  the  mine.  Torches  were  ranged  on  a  fence  built  about  the  mine 
works  and  on  a  flag-pole  within  the  boundary.  At  sunset  they  were 
lighted,  with  an  accompaniment  of  cheers  and  an  anvil  chorus  which 
echoed  from  the  hill-side  down  the  ravines.^  When  this  fiery  rampart  was 
in  full  glow  its  admiring  builders  watched  the  flames  through  the  night 
until  their  eyes  were  closed  by  weariness  and  "rifle  whisky." 

On  the  29th  of  September,  1860,  the  first  theatre  in  the  camp  was 
opened  by  a  traveling  company  from  Salt  Lake  City,  playing  the  farces  of 
Toodles  and  Swiss  Swains,^  and  though  the  fancy  of  the  audience  was 
mightily  strained  to  supply  the  requisite  stage-setting  and  the  "star"  was 
of  the  tenth  magnitude,  the  performance  was  a  pecuniary  success,  as  the 
miners  were  disposed  to  accept  a  display  of  zeal  in  place  of  talent.  Per- 
haps for  the  same  reason  they  "loaded  the  hat"  of  the  first  missionary 
preacher*  with  silver  when  he  stepped  down  from  the  dry-goods  box  which 
had  served  as  his  pulpit.  Among  prospectors  faith  without  works  was 
neither  dead  nor  unappreciated ;  still,  works  were  by  no  means  lacking. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  October  1,  1860.  ^  Sacramento  Union,  September  20,  1860. ' 

'  Sacramento  Union,  October  1,  1860. 

*  Rev.  Adam  Bland,  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church. — Church  Records  furnished  O.  D.  Wheeler,  U.  S. 

Census  Agent, -Virginia  City,  Nev. 


94  HISTOET  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  disorderly  camp  was  fast  crystallizing  into  a  well-established  mining 
town. 

The  canvas  tents  and  hovels  had  been  replaced  during  the  summer 
by  board  cabins  and  business  houses,  which  were  erected  with  surprising 
rapidity  on  the  hill-side  along  the  line  of  the  ledge  croppings.  Yet  the 
price  of  land  and  lumber  was  preposterous.  Lots  within  the  limits  of 
the  camp  were  sold  in  March,  1860,  at  from  $200  to  $1,000,  though  no 
valid  title  could  be  given  with  the  property,  and  lumber  was  then  $175 
per  M.^  During  the  next  month  the  price  of  lumber  went  up  to  $300  per 
M,  as  teamsters  were  charging  $200  for  hauling  a  load  to  camp,  18  miles 
from  the  mills  in  the  valley,^  and  town  lots  25  by  100  feet  were  held  at 
from  $700  to  $1,500,^  but  even  these  exorbitant  rates  did  not  retard  the 
growth  of  the  town,  for  houses  were  purchased  as  rapidly  as  contractors 
could  build  them,  and  when  the  price  of  lumber  fell  to  $80  per  M,  upon 
the  completion  of  a  good  wagon-road  through  Gold  Canon,  there  was  a 
general  substitution  of  wood  for  canvas  throughout  the  camp. 

On  October,  13,  1860,  there  were  nearly  one  hundred  buildings  of 
different  kinds  in  course  of  erection,  and  besides  an  uncounted  number  of 
cabins  the  following  business  quarters  had  been  already  built  and  occu- 
pied: 38  stores,  general  merchandise,  4  cigar  and  tobacco  stores,  3  drug- 
gists' stores,  2  stationer's  stores,  2  fruit  stores,  25  saloons,  9  restaurants, 
7  boarding  houses,  1  hotel  (the  International) ,  4  butchers'  shops,  9  bakers' 
shops,  7  blacksmiths'  shops,  3  tinsmiths'  shops,  1  gunsmith's  shop,  7 
shoemakers'  and  cobblers'  shops,  1  saddler's  shop,  2  carpenter  shops,  1 
paint  shop,  1  tailor,  3  watchmakers,  2  barbers,  6  physicians'  offices,  1 
cians'  offices,  1  dentist,  8  law  offices,  2  express  offices,  2  assay  offices,  1 
surveyor's  office,  5  brokers'  offices  (agents  and  brokers),  1  auction  and 
commission  house,  1  dressmaker's  shop,  4  machine-sewers'  rooms,  10 
livery  stables  and  feedstores,  10  laundries,  1  bath-house,  1  theatre,  1 
music  hall,  1  school-house,  1  post  office,  9  quartz  mills,  5  lumber  yards.* 

The  outlay  required  to  erect  these  buildings,  however  large,  was  jus- 

'  S.acramento  Union,  March  17,  1860. 

'San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  23,  1860;  Editorial  Correspondence,  J.  W.  Simonton,  Carson  City. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  April  25,  1860. 

■■San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  October  17,  1860;  Virginia  City  Con-espondent. 


FOUNDATION  OF  A  GREAT  MINING  TOWN.  95 

tifled  by  the  tariff  of  rents  and  lodging  charges.  Bunks  with  hay  beds 
were  let  at  $1  per  night  or  $4.50  per  week,  and  the  favorite  lodging- 
house  known  as  the  "Astor"  had  eighteen  bunks  in  one  room  20  feet 
by  12.^  In  April  |125  per  month  was  paid  for  the  privilege  of  a  cigar- 
stand  in  the  corner  of  a  store,  and  from  $150  to  $250  per  month  for  a 
cotton-covered  warehouse  20  feet  square,  without  window,  fire-place,  or 
chimney.^ 

As  the  cost  of  building  was  offset  by  the  rent-rates,  so  again  these 
rates  were  overbalanced  by  the  profits  upon  the  sale  of  goods.  The 
price  of  flour  per  pound  rose  from  20  cents,  in  March,^  to  $1,  in  April,* 
the  wholesale  price  being  $60  per  100  pounds.  Sugar  (brown)  was 
sold  at  50  cents  per  pound;*  rice  at  45  cents  per  pound  ;*  butter  at  $1 
per  pound  ;*  beans  (white)  at  40  cents  per  pound  ;*  dried  apples  at  45  cents 
per  pound;*  bacon  at  40  cents  per  pound ;^  codfish  at  37 J  cents  per 
pound  ;*  blankets  at  $8  per  pair ;°  candles  (by  the  box)  at  $1  per  pound  ;^ 
tin  plates  at  $9  per  dozen  ;**  nails  at  $1  per  pound;®  shovels  at  $9;®  liquors 
at  from  $12  to  $20  per  gallon  and  25  and  50  cents  per  glass.® 

The  cost  of  food  for  the  horses  and  mules  was  proportionally  greater, 
as  the  supply  was  still  less  sufficient.  Hay  was  doled  out  by  the  pound 
at  50  cents,°  and  barley  was  eagerly  purchased  at  $1  per  pound.'  When 
neither  could  be  procured,  as  was  often  the  case,  the  starving  animals 
died  by  scores  on  the  road  and  at  the  camp.  As  the  snow  melted  and  the 
roads  became  passable  for  wagons,  supplies  of  all  kinds  poured  into  camp 
so  rapidly  that  prices  fell  in  some  instances  to  one-twelfth  of  their  former 
rate,  but  when  the  first  snow-storm,  on  the  19th  of  October,  heralded  the 
approach  of  winter,  an  advance  was  again  noted.  Freight  charges  from 
Sacramento  ranged  from  10  to  12  cents  per  pound ;  the  price  of  flour  rose 
to  14  cents  per  pound,  and  the  cost  of  other  staple  groceries  in  proportion. 
Barley  was  sold  at  12*  cents  per  pound  and  hay  at  $100  per  ton.* 

In  a  camp  where  the  cost  of  living  was  so  great  wages  were  neces- 

1  San  Francisco  Evening  Btilletin,  Marcli  16,  1860 ;  Virginia  City  correspondence. 

^  Sacramento  Union,  April  17,  1860 ;  Editorial.     San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  25,  1860 ;  Editorial. 

'Sacramento  Union,  March  17,  1860.  ''  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  13,  1860. 

^  John  L.  Moore,  Virginia  City,  Nev.  ^Sacramento  Union,  April  25,  1860. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  April  17,  1860  ;  Editorial ;  John  L.  Moore,  Virginia  City,  Nev. 

'San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  October  27,  1860. 


96  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

sarily  high.  The  wages  paid  to  skilled  laborers  per  day  were,  viz  : 
Masons,  $8 ;  carpenters,  $6 ;  tinsmiths,  $5 ;  house-painters,  $4 ;  boot  and 
shoemakers,  $5.  Common  laborers  received  $4  per  day,  cooks  from  $50 
to  $100  per  month,  and  waiters  from  $40  to  $60.  The  usual  wages  of 
miners  were  from  $4  to  |5  per  day,  and  mill  hands  received  from  $4  to  $6.^ 
Much  of  the  early  mining  work  was  done  by  contract,  the  profits  of  the 
miners  varying,  of  course,  with  the  character  of  rock  encountered.  The 
usual  price  paid  per  foot  of  linear  excavation  in  ordinary  drifts  or  adits 
(4J  by  6i  feet  in  the  clear)  was  $5.^  Powder,  fuse,  and  drills  Avere  fur- 
nished by  the  workmen,  but  the  requisite  timbering  was  commonly  sup- 
plied by  the  employers. 

With  the  approach  of  winter  the  needy,  floating  population  of  the 
camp  had  found  regular  employment  or  drifted  away  to  other  districts. 
How  numerous  a  troop  had  flocked  to  the  mines  during  the  spring  and 
summer  cannot  be  exactly  stated.  A  careful  enumeration  by  a  competent 
census  agent  toward  the  close  of  the  year  determined  the  population  of 
Virginia  City  to  be  2,244 ;  of  Gold  Hill,  600 ;  and  of  Silver  City,  a  little 
town  on  the  line  of  Gold  Cailon,  three  miles  from  its  head,  594.^ 

This  record  was  without  doubt  substantially  correct,  though  it  did  not 
accord  with  the  extravagant  estimates  of  the  new-fledged  citizens.  The 
incessant  stir  and  excitement  of  the  time  magnified  the  true  proportions 
of  the  camps,  and  the  total  immigration  was  sometimes  confounded  also 
with  the  total  population,  though  differing  as  widely  as  a  running  stream 
from  a  pool.  Yet  in  this  little  colony  the  future  city  was  foreshown  far 
more  distinctly  than  in  the  numerous  swarms  of  prospectors  which  had 
covered  the  district  during  the  summer.  The  growth  of  several  of  the 
little  settlements  in  the  valley  of  the  Carson  almost  kept  pace,  also,  with 
the  rise  of  the  towns  on  the  lode.  Dayton,  at  the  foot  of  Gold  Canon, 
became  in  one  summer  (1860)  a  thriving  village;  Genoa,  at  the  foot  of  the 
main  pass  leading  over  the  Sierras,  was  the  natural  depot  of  supplies ;  and 
Carson,  the  county  seat,  on  the  banks  of  the  river,  near  the  centre  of  the 
valley,  claimed  the  honors  of  a  metropolis. 

1  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  October  27,  1860  ;  Washoe  Correspondent  "  Pioneer,"  Virginia  City, 
October  23,  1860.  ^P.  McMurchy,  Contractor  for  Caledonia  Tunnel,  Virginia  City,  Nev. 

^Ten-itorial  Enterprise,  November  10,  1860;  Report  of  Census  Marshal  for  Western  Utah. 


CHAPTER  VI. 
THE  INEVITABLE  LITIGATION. 

The  desultory  explorations  of  the  past  year  (1860)  were  mainly  serv- 
iceable in  proving  conclusively  that  organization  and  capital  were  essential 
to  the  profitable  development  of  the  great  body  of  claims  in  the  district. 
Informal  associations  with  no  strong  ties  of  union  and  no  means  of 
insuring  persistent  work  or  equal  apportionment  of  expenses  were  clearly 
ineffective.  To  supply  this  recognized  need  mine  owners  began  to  unite 
as  incorporated  companies.  By  this  plan  of  organization  the  work  of 
mine  development  was  placed  in  charge  of  a  single  executive,  presumably 
a  competent  superintendent,  and  a  general  oversight  regulating  expendi- 
tures and  the  conduct  of  the  business  of  the  company  was  provided  for 
in  the  election  of  a  board  of  trustees  or  directors.  The  necessary  funds 
for  carrying  on  the  work  were  supplied  by  the  levy  of  assessments  or  by 
the  sale  of  reserved  shares  of  the  capital  stock.  The  Ophir  Mining  Com- 
pany was  the  first  to  organize  in  this  manner,  as  has  been  noted,  on  the 
28th  of  April,  1860,  with  a  nominal  capital  of  $5,040,000,  represented  by 
16,800  shares  whose  par  value  was  |300.  Other  associatio.ns  followed 
suit  in  quick  succession,  and  the  most  promising  claims  in  the  Washoe 
district,  with  few  exceptions,  were  soon  owned  and  controlled  by  stock 
companies. 

During  the  early  existence  of  the  mining  camp,  while  prospectors 
were  chiefly  occupied  in  staking  off  claims,  no  serious  controversy  had 
arisen,  though  individual  bickerings  over  location  boundaries  were  of  daily 
occurrence.  One  claim  appeared  as  good  as  another  to  most  of  these 
inexperienced  silver  ledge  hunters,  and  there  was  no  strong  incentive  to 
wrangle  over  rock  croppings  whose  value  was  problematical ;  but  before 
the  close  of  the  year  1860  work  upon  the  principal  claims  had  reached  a 
point  where  collision  was  inevitable,  and  then  the  geological  character  of 
the  district  and  the  distribution  of  the  ore  deposits  became  a  problem  of 
absorbing  interest. 

7  H  c  (97) 


93  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE, 

The  rugged  slope  of  Mount  Davidson  and  the  irregular  basin  at  its 
foot  showed  plain  marks  of  violent  eruptive  movements  and  land-slides. 
A  solid  cone  of  dark-gray  diorite^  had  been  forced  upward  through  over- 
lying masses  of  feldspathic  rock,  splitting  off  huge  parallel  plates  or  layers 
by  vertical  and  lateral  pressure.  This  cone  was  the  Sun  Peak,  and  in  later 
ages  the  plates  about  its  base  had  slipped,  or  "faulted"'  in  technical 
wording,  while  seething  waters  enveloped  the  grinding  surfaces  of  the 
rocks  and  hissed  through  every  fissure  and  tiny  crevice.  Hot  sulphurous 
fumes  rose  through  the  weltering  mass,  and  tossing  clouds  of  steam  and 
mineral  vapors  covered  the  basin.  By  the  combined  action  of  the  thermal 
heat,  motion,  pressure,  and  solvent  waters  the  crystals  of  feldspar  were 
crushed  and  reduced  to  their  constituent  quartz  and  clay.  That  the 
precious  metals  were  distributed  in  solution  through  the  quartz  and  shat- 
tered porphyry  by  intermingling  streams  is  generally  conceded,  but  whether 
these  metals  were  originally  derived  from  hornblende  decomposed  by  sol- 
fataric  action  or  from  other  more  remote  sources  has  not  been  finally 
determined. 

The  mechanical  disposition  of  the  quartz  bodies  was,  however,  the 
question  of  immediate  importance  in  1860.  Were  they  thrown  into  the 
form  of  narrow  veins,  separated  by  well-defined  walls  of  barren  rock ;  or 
were  they  deposited  mainly  in  one  great  fissure,  filled  with  immense  frag- 
ments or  wedges  of  porphyry,  yet  still  a  single  lode,  extending  along  the 
foot  of  Mount  Davidson,  bounded  on  the  west  by  a  sloping  wall  of  diorite 
and  clinging  masses  of  porphyry  and  on  the  east  by  an  irregular  barrier 
of  eruptive  rocks  and  clays  ?  In  a  word,  were  there  many  ledges  on  the 
slopes  of  Mount  Davidson,  or  only  one?  When  it  is  recalled  to  mind  how 
many  locations  had  been  made  in  this  basin  and  on  the  confining  hills, 
and  how  many  different  ledges  had  been  assumed  to  exist,  it  can  be  real- 
ized how  much  was  staked  upon  the  answer  to  this  simple  question. 

By  the  law  of  the  miners^  the  first  locators  were  entitled  to  the 
exclusive  possession  of  the  section  of  the  ledge  included  in  their  claims, 
with  all  its  spurs  and  angles  throughout  its  whole  extent,  or  as  far  below 

'  A  rock  granitic  in  structure,  but  classed  as  diorite  from  the  presence  of  distinctive  crystals  of  hornblende. 
'Mining  laws.  Gold  Hill  District,  article  4,  section  13;  Virginia  District,  article  1. 


THE  INEVITABLE  LITIGATION.  99 

the  surface  as  they  and  their  assignees  were  disposed  to  develop  it. 
Planes  drawn  perpendicularly  through  boundary  lines  running  at  right 
angles  with  the  general  strike  of  the  ledge  as  determined  by  survey  marked 
the  separation  of  the  different  claims.  If,  then,  there  was  only  one  ledge, 
and  the  croppings  on  each  side  of  it  were  adjudged  to  be  spurs  and  angles 
instead  of  distinct  bodies,  the  locators  along  the  line  of  that  one  ledge 
were  the  lawful  possessors  of  the  ore  deposits  throughout  the  whole  basin 
and  eastern  hill  slope.  If  Conistock  and  his  partners  were  the  first 
locators  on  that  ledge,  for  instance,  a  section  1,500  feet  long  and  extend- 
ing indefinitely  downward  was  the  undoubted  property  of  these  locators 
or  their  assignees,  and  the  adjacent  claims  to  the  east  and  west  were 
invalid.  It  is  true  that  a  claim  of  such  proportions  was  not  at  first 
contemplated  or  tenable  and  locators  on  parallel  croppings  would  have 
esteemed  it  too  preposterous  for  serious  answer.  Comstock  and  his  part- 
ners did  not  doubt  the  existence  of  parallel  ledges,  and  their  assignees, 
the  Ophir  Company,  had  been  for  many  months  in  possession  of  their 
purchase  before  they  conceived  the  idea  of  laying  claim  to  the  ownership 
of  all  the  metalliferous  deposits  in  the  mountain  side  within  the  terminal 
planes  of  their  location.  But  in  the  meantime,  as  their  mine  had  been 
most  largely  productive,  locations  along  its  assumed  line  were  the  most 
highly  valued,  and  were  secured,  as  a  rule,  by  organized  companies  of 
wealthy  capitalists.  These  mine  owners  were  few  in  number  compared 
with  those  who  had  taken  possession  of  claims  on  supposed  parallel  ledges, 
so  that  the  majority  were  clearly  interested  in  supporting  the  "  many-ledge 
theory,"  as  it  was  popularly  termed.  On  the  other  hand,  the  claims  on 
the  line  of  the  Comstock  ledge  were  held  by  well-organized  companies, 
while  the  parallel  ledges  were  held  commonly  by  the  poor  prospectors, 
who  were  the  original  locators,  or  by  their  assignee  brokers.  In  the  legal 
conflict  which  was  to  begin,  aside  from  the  weight  of  evidence,  the  chances 
of  success  were  manifestly  in  favor  of  the  side  which  was  able  to  present 
its  theory  most  forcibly  and  persistently;  or,  in  other  words,  the  side  best 
able  to  employ  competent  counsel  and  to  defray  the  expenses  of  protracted 
litigation.  Still  the  facts  presented  in  evidence  at  first  threatened  to  offset 
this  advantage  by  their  apparent  support  of  the  popular  theory.     The 


IQQ  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

croppings  scattered  over  the  basin  were  obviously  separated  by  intervals 
of  barren  rock,  and  though  the  width  of  the  ledges  increased  as  their  lines 
were  traced  below  the  surface,  the  parallel  quartz  bodies  still  remained 
distinct  in  most  instances.  No  shaft  or  incline  had  been  sunk  in  the 
autumn  of  1860  deeper  than  200  feet,  and  the  question  of  the  final  union 
of  the  ledges  at  some  undefined  distance  below  the  surface  was  undeter- 
mined. The  evidence  so  far  developed  furnished  a  plausible  basis,  at 
least,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  "  many  ledge  "  proposition.^ 

The  ledges  lying  to  the  east  of  the  assumed  Comstock  line  were  in 
fact  almost  universally  believed  to  be  distinct  from  that  lode,  as  its  apparent 
dip  was  toward  the  west,  in  the  direction  of  the  diorite  mountain,  and 
receding  from  the  basin  ledges  with  each  foot  of  its  inclination.     Melville 
Atwood,  an  old  Californian  assay er  and  practical  geologist,  in  a  letter 
written  to  the  Ophir  Mining  Company  in  1859,  had  indeed  pointed  out  the 
fact  that  this  apparent  dip  was  a  false  one,  and  that  the  ledge  would  be 
found  to  turn  toward  the  east,  following  the  trend  of  the  mountain  slope, 
at  no  great  distance  under  ground ;  ^  but  little  attention  was  paid  to  his 
prediction.     A  few  others,^  from  independent  observation,  arrived  at  the 
same  conclusion,  but  until  the  actual  change  of  course  was  practically 
demonstrated  the  general  opinion  was  that  the  westward  dip  indicated  the 
true  course  of  the  ledge.     Now  this  false  dip,  while  going  far  to  confirm 
the  title  of  the  locators  on  the  eastern  ledges,  was  the  immediate  cause  of 
litigation  with  claimants  whose  location  lay  to  the  west,  for  inclines  could 
not  be  sunk  along  the  dip  of  the  Comstock  ledge  without  meeting  corre- 
sponding  shafts  on  the  western  ledges  unless  it  should  happen  that  the 
angle  of  inclination  of  these  ledges  was  equal  or  less.     As  a  matter  of 
fact  these  ledges  or  spurs  were  nearly  perpendicular  in  most  instances, 
and  one,  the  Virginia  ledge,  whose  croppings  were  most  distinctly  marked, 
would  be  shown  to  dip  unmistakably  to  the  east.*    Therefore  as  soon  as 
any  ore  of  value  should  be  taken  from  these  ledges  the  question  of  title 
would,  of  a  certainty,  be  raised.     A  party  of  miners,  holding  the  "Middle 


'  Vide  Sacramento  Uuiou,  October  8,  1860,  and  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  2, 1863,  for  Editorial  Ajticles  in 
.support  of  this  assumptiou,  as  well  as  the  list  of  Ledges,  Virginia  Mining  District,  in  Nevada  Directory,  1863. 
=  Sacramento  Union,  November  10,  1859.  « I.  L.  James ;  Philip  Deidesheimer ;  William  M.  Stewart. 

<  Philip  Deidesheimer;  Wm.  M.  Stewart;  I.  E.  James. 


THE  INEVITABLE  LITIGATION.  IQl 

Lead,"  as  it  was  termed,  lying  to  the  west  of  the  Ophir  Company's  ground, 
was  the  first  to  develop  a  rich  ore  body,^  and  the  deposit  was  at  once 
claimed  by  the  Ophir  and  Mexican  companies.^ 

John  Cradlebaugh,  a  pioneer  lawyer,  who  had  headed  a  little  company 
in  the  recent  Indian  war,  had  been  appointed  Judge  of  the  2d  Judicial 
District,  Utah  Territory,  by  President  Buchanan,  in  1859,  and  opened 
court  at  Genoa,  Carson  Valley,  on  September  3,  1860,^  in  the  only  avail- 
able room,  a  badly  lighted  chamber,  over  a  livery  stable.*  The  town  was 
filled  to  overflowing  with  lawyers,  litigants,  witnesses,  and  jurors.  A 
bundle  of  straw  in  a  barn  was  eagerly  sought  as  a  bed,  and  the  judge  slept 
contentedly  between  rival  attorneys,  while  the  humbler  attendants  spread 
their  blankets  on  the  sage-brush.^  Excitement  over  the  "Middle  Lead 
Case"  and  other  pending  suits  was  at  fever  heat,  and  more  than  one  shot 
was  fired  at  an  important  witness  as  he  galloped  down  Gold  Canon,  at 
night-fall,  to  attend  court  on  the  following  morning.^ 

When  the  case  of  the  Ophir  Company  vs.  McCall  et  al.,  popularly 
known  as  the  "Middle  Lead  Boys,"  was  called,  three  or  four  hundred  men, 
armed  to  the  teeth,  were  present  at  the  trial.  William  M.  Stewart  and 
Alexander  Baldwin  were  the  counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  the  Ophir  Company, 
while  David  S.  Terry  and  James  Hardy  appeared  for  the  defendants.  The 
room  was  crowded  with  excited  partisans,  and  an  unguarded  expression 
might  at  any  moment  bring  on  a  collision  which  would  cover  the  floor 
with  bleeding  bodies.  The  lawyers  engaged  in  the  suit  being  fully  aware 
of  the  disposition  of  their  respective  supporters,  exercised  a  judicious  cau- 
tion in  discussing  the  merits  of  the  rival  claims,  and  they  were  markedly 
courteous  in  their  personal  allusions  as  well  as  in  the  examination  of  the 
witnesses,  while  their  show  of  deference  for  the  rulings  of  the  court  was 
extremely  flattering  to  the  presiding  judge.''  In  the  face  of  this  prevailing 
harmony,  the  jury  appeared  unnaturally  obdurate  in  persistently  refusing 
to  agree  upon  a  verdict. 

'  William  P.  Dewey,  Secretary  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1860 ;  William  M.  Stewart. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  September  19,  1860.  '  Sacramento  Union,  September  18,  1860. 

^Territorial  Enterprise,  June  13,  1872,  "Historical  Reminiscences." 

'Wm.  P.  Dewey;  Isaac  E.  James;  Wm.  M.  Stewart. 

'  Wm.  P.  Dewey,  Secretary  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1860. 

'  William  M.  Stewart. 


102  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  next  case  of  interest  on  the  docket  was  the  suit  brought  by  tlie 
Savage  Mining  Company  (unorganized)  to  recover  possession  of  ground 
on  their  claim  held  by  a  party  calling  themselves  the  Bowers  Company/ 
The  Savage  Company  held  their  claim  by  virtue  of  a  location  made  and 
recorded  July  4,  1859,-  as  follows : 

Notice 

That  we  the  undersign  claim  Six  claims  Eighteen  hundred  feet  on  the  Surposed 
Quarts  Vein  of  Penrods  &  Co  commencing  at  G  Norrow  cross  claim  &  running  north 
to  Abe  Fields  &  companys  claim ' 

R  CRALE 
C  CHASE 
H  CARMACK 
W  SURTEVANT 
A  O  SAVAGE 
L  C  SAVAGE 
July  4th  1859 

Recorded  this  day 

V.  A.  HOUSEWORTH 

Eecorder 
The  Bowers  Company  had  located  their  claim  in  May,  1859,  as  they 
alleged,  and  recorded  it  on  July  2,  1859.* 

Notice 

That  we  the  undersign  claim  Six  hundred  feet  two  claims  commencing  South  line 
of  Gould  &  Curry  Hying  west  of  Curry  &  Co  Including  Quarts  &  Surface  two  hundred 
feet  square  running  up  the  hill  from  Curry  claim 
21st  May  1859 

J.  F.  ROGERS. 
T  S  BOWERS 
JOS  WEBB 
G.  A.  HAMMACK 

Recorded  July  2,  1859" 

V  A  HOUSEWORTH  Eecorder 


'  Minute  Book,  Second  Judicial  District,  Utah  Territory,  p.  82. 

^Sacramento  Union,  September  19,  1860.  ^Qold  Hill  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  p.  21. 

■•  Sacramento  Union  October  13,  1860.  =  Gold  Uill  Mining  Records,  Book  A,  p.  18. 


THE  INEVITABLE  LITIGATION.  103 

For  a  time  the  two  companies  worked  on  the  disputed  claim,  at  inter- 
vals, without  colHsion,  but  in  April,  1860,  the  Bowers  Company,  thinking 
that  their  rights  were  infringed  upon,  built  a  rude  stone  fort  on  the  ground, 
laid  in  a  stock  of  provisions  and  ammunition,  and  a  garrison  of  thirty- 
armed  men  defied  dislodgment/  Since  that  time  they  had  held  possession 
of  the  disputed  ground,  and  the  Savage  Mining  Company,  in  order  to 
recover  it,  brought  a  suit  against  them  for  trespass.  By  consent  of  the  con- 
testing parties  in  open  court,'^  as  no  unbiased  jury  could  be  impaneled 
and  unanimous  agreement  was  hopeless,  a  majority  verdict  was  to  decide 
the  suit.  The  correspondent  of  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin  reported  that  the 
weight  of  evidence  was  overwhelmingly  in  favor  of  the  plaintiffs,  but  the 
jury,  notwithstanding,  returned  a  verdict  for  the  defendants^  by  a  vote  of 
eight  to  three.  Subsequently,  one  of  Ihe  jurors  made  affidavit  that  his 
decision  was  bought  for  the  sum  of  |250  and  a  portion  of  the  ground  in 
dispute;*  whereupon  the  counsel  for  the  plaintiffs  moved  that  a  new 
trial  be  granted,  but  the  motion  was  overruled  October  20,  1860,  "the 
Court  viewing  the  case  as  only  settling  a  matter  of  trespass,'"^  and  not  the 
ownership  of  any  ledge  or  ledges  within  the  location  lines. 

The  issue  of  these  two  trials  was  a  plain  indication  of  the  troubled 
scenes  which  were  to  follow.  The  rival  ledge  theories  were  a  prolific  source 
of  contention,  while  the  ignorant  or  intentional  inaccuracy  in  defining  the 
boundaries  of  the  claims,  and  the  neglect  to  make  proper  records  or  to 
record  locations  at  all,  were  equally  certain  to  result  in  expensive  litiga- 
tion. It  was  no  wonder  that  lawyers  flocked  to  Washoe,  for  the  promise 
of  a  rich  harvest  was  unmistakable. 

As  if  to  add  to  the  confusion  the  President,  James  Buchanan,  saw  fit 
to  remove  Judge  Gradlebaugh  in  January,  1861,  from  the  bench,  and  to 
appoint  in  his  stead  a  former  minister  to  the  Hague,  R.  P.  Flenniken.^ 
Now  the  act  of  Congress  organizing  the  Territory  of  Utah  provided  that 


'  Sacramento  Union,  May  8,  1860 ;  Special  Correspondent  in  Virginia  City,  April  38,  1860. 

■•2  Minute  Book,  Utah  Ter.,  Second  District,  p.  82. 

3  Minute  Book,  Second  Judicial  District,  Utah  Ter.,  p.  82. 

■•  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin.  October  2, 1860;  Virginia  City  Covrespondent,  September  39, 1860. 

''  Minute  Book,  Second  Judicial  District,  Utah  Ter.,  p.  95. 

''Territorial  Enterprise,  February  2,  1861. 


X04  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

its  judiciary  should  be  composed  of  a  chief  justice  and  two  associate 
justices  of  the  supreme  court,  who  should  act  also  as  district  judges,  upon 
their  appointment  by  the  President  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of 
the  Senate.  Their  term  of  office  was  limited  to  four  years,  but  no  provis- 
ion was  made  for  their  removal  by  the  appointing  power,  though  another 
clause  of  the  same  act  expressly  empowered  the  President  to  remove  the 
Territorial  governor,  secretary.  United  States  attorney,  and  marshal.  In 
commenting  upon  the  tenure  of  the  judicial  offices  Judge  Crosby  writes 
that,  "as  the  freedom  of  the  judiciary  from  the  interference  of  political  or 
other  improper  influence  is  a  foundation-stone  of  our  theory  of  constitu- 
tional government,  it  was  evidently  the  intention  of  Congress  to  prevent 
removals  of  judges  and  to  place  them  during  the  term  of  their  commis- 
sions, as  far  as  possible,  on  the  same  footing  with  the  United  States  judges 
in  the  States,  liable  only  to  removal  in  the  same  way — by  impeachment 
and  trial  for  misconduct  in  office."^  If  the  judge  is  right  in  his  surmise, 
and  this  was  the  implied  intention  of  the  act,  it  does  not  follow  by  any 
means  that  the  President  was  bound  to  conform  to  the  will  of  Congress  in 
thus  arbitrarily  hampering  the  executive  powers  confided  to  him  by  the 
Constitution.  The  tenure  of  the  Supreme  Court  judiciary  is  fixed  by  the 
Constitution,  but  in  default  of  any  constitutional  provision  determining 
the  tenure  of  Territorial  judgeships  it  can  scarcely  be  maintained  that 
their  incumbents  are  not  on  the  same  footing  as  the  marshals  and  other 
appointees  of  the  Executive.  Judge  Cradlebaugh,  however,  was  naturally 
inclined  to  defend  his  seat,  and  sturdily  refused  to  recognize  the  authority 
by  which  he  was  removed.^ 

On  January  28,  1861,  he  opened  court  in  Carson  City  and  defined 
his  position  by  a  brief  speech.^  He  gave  notice  that  he  intended  to  hold 
his  seat  on  the  bench,  although  Judge  Flenniken  had  been  appointed,  con- 
firmed, and  assigned  to  the  district,  declaring  that  the  President  had  no 
right  to  remove  a  judge,  and  that  he  for  one  did  not  propose  to  resign 
until  the  coming  4th  of  March.  Furthermore,  as  the  national  Govern- 
ment had  failed  to  honor  his  draft,  drawn  months  ago,  and  his  friend, 


1  Henry  R.  Crosby,  Associate  Justice  Supreme  Court,  Utah  Tcr.,  1860 ;  Letter  dated  March  8, 1881. 
=  William  M.  Stewart.  'Territorial  Enterprise,  February  2,  1861. 


THE  INEVITABLE  LITIGATION.  IQo 

William  M.  Lent,  had  advanced  money  on  his  salary  up  to  March  4, 1861, 
he  considered  that  it  was  due  to  his  creditor  to  serve  his  time  out.  If 
any  attorney  wished  to  withdraw  his  suit  he  would  permit  him  to  do  so, 
in  case  answer  had  not  yet  been  filed,  but  otherwise  not,  except  by  consent 
of  counsel  on  both  sides. ^ 

In  view  of  this  laudable  desire  on  the  part  of  the  judge  to  satisfy  his 
creditor,  and  considering  that  he  was  probably  better  fitted  to  preside 
over  Washoe  trials  than  a  new-comer  unacquainted  with  the  ways  of  the 
district,  several  of  the  leading  lawyers  agreed  to  try  their  cases  before 
him  until  some  decision  upon  his  rightful  tenure  of  office  should  be 
rendered  by  the  supreme  court  of  Utah.^  A  test  case  was  accordingly 
appealed  from  his  decision  to  the  court  at  Salt  Lake  City,  and  pending  the 
issue  of  this  appeaP  suits  were  brought  to  trial  by  William  M.  Stewart, 
David  S.  Terry,  and  others  at  Carson  City.  A  few  weeks  later,  however, 
as  Mr.  Terry  considered  that  the  charges  of  the  judge  accorded  too  closely 
with  Mr.  Stewart's  views  of  the  law  and  evidence,  the  temporary  agree- 
ment was  canceled,*  and  he  announced  his  intention  of  recognizing  the 
authority  of  Judge  Flenniken,  who  had  meanwhile  arrived  on  the  ground. 
This  official  was  an  elderly  and  somewhat  pompous  personage,  who  made 
his  entry  into  Virginia  City  as  if  presenting  himself  at  the  court  of  Hol- 
land, and  the  fact  of  his  wearing  a  fine  silk  hat,  said  to  be  the  only  one 
in  western  Utah,  was  the  occasion  of  universal  comment.^  Stewart  and 
the  lawyers  engaged  to  support  the  single  ledge  theory  were  satisfied  with 
Cradlebaugh's  decisions,  and  in  no  haste  to  transfer  their  allegiance  to 
the  new-comer,  who  was  thought  to  be  better  adapted  to  adorn  a  foreign 
court  than  to  deal  with  the  complications  of  Washoe  jurisprudence. 
Cradlebaugh,  encouraged  by  the  adherence  of  Stewart  and  others,  held 
his  ground  firmly,  and  a  conflict  at  once  ensued." 

Two  mining  companies,  the  Rich  and  Lucy  Ella,  claimed  a  certain 
ledge  on  a  hill  near  the  Devil's  Gate,  Gold  Canon,''  while  a  third  associa- 
tion, the  Saint  Louis  Company,  was  engaged  in  cutting  an  adit  into  the 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  February  8,  1861.  °  William  M.  Stewart. 

^A  Washoe  substitute  for  a  writ  otquo  warranto.  ■'William  M.  Stewart. 

'F.  A.  Tritle,  Virginia  City.  ^Territorial  Enterprise,  November  24,  1660. 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  5,  1861 ;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  January  10,  1861. 


106  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

same  ledge  from  a  point  two  hundred  feet  below  its  croppings.^  Some 
extremely  rich  ore  had  been  found  in  the  ledge,  and  on  January  4, 1861, 
Judge  Cradlebaugh  granted  an  injunction,  at  the  instance  of  the  Saint  Louis 
Company,  restraining  the  Rich  and  Lucy  Ella  companies  from  mining  on 
the  ledge  or  carrying  away  ore  from  the  disputed  ground.^  Before  the  pro- 
cess of  the  court  had  been  served  the  Rich  Company  had  ejected  the  Lucy 
Ella  association  by  virtue  of  a  peremptory  order  enforced  by  shotguns  and 
revolvers,^  but  they  in  turn  were  formally  dispossessed  by  the  sheriff,  who 
stationed  a  deputy  on  the  ground  to  preserve  the  property  intact  until 
further  order  of  the  court.  For  some  weeks  the  R.ich  Company  submitted 
with  a  bad  grace,  but  upon  Judge  Flenniken's  arrival  they  erected  a  fort  on 
the  claim  in  spite  of  the  protest  of  the  deputy,  and  invited  the  Saint  Louis 
Company  to  come  and  take  it.* 

Mr.  Stewart,  as  counsel  for  the  Saint  Louis  Company,  was  by  no  means 
inclined  to  see  the  ledge  despoiled,  and  obtained  a  warrant  from  Judge 
Cradlebaugh  for  the  arrest  of  the  garrison  on  the  charge  of  violating  the 
order  of  injunction;  but  he  did  not  venture  to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  the 
sheriif,  as  Cradlebaugh's  authority  was  so  questionable  that  an  attempt  to 
dispossess  the  garrison  was  certain  to  result  in  bloodshed."  So  matters 
stood  on  the  evening  of  February  15, 1861,  when  the  pony  express  brought 
the  news  from  Salt  Lake  City  that  the  supreme  court  had  recognized  Cradle- 
baugh as  legally  holding  office  notwithstanding  the  action  of  the  President. 
Upon  receipt  of  this  report,  and  upon  the  urgent  representations  of  Stewart 
and  others.  Judge  Flenniken  announced  informally,  in  the  presence  of  a 
large  number  of  persons  in  Virginia  City,  that  he  should  acquiesce  in  the 
decision,  and  the  attorney  for  the  Saint  Louis  Company  was  not  slow  to 
avail  himself  of  this  concession  by  delivering  the  order  of  arrest  to  John 
L.  Blackburn,  sheriff  and  district  court  marshal,  with  instructions  to  col- 
lect a  posse  and  set  out  early  on  the  next  day  to  take  possession  of  the  fort 
at  Devil's  Gate.'^ 

While  the  energetic  lawyer  was  sleeping  soundly  the  next  morning, 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  12,  1861;  Sacramento  Union,  January  17,  1861. 
■  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  Januarj'  18,  1861.  'William  M.  Stewart. 

■*  TeiTitorial  Enterprise,  February  16,  1861 ;  Sacramento  Union,  February  21,  1861. 
■'William  M.  Stewart.  ''William  M.  Stewart. 


THE  INEVITABLE  LITIGATION.  107 

believing  that  the  contest  was  over,  a  junior  counsel  in  the  suit  entered 
his  bed-room  hastily  and  awoke  him  with  the  news  that  Judge  Flenniken 
had  changed  his  mind  during  the  night  and  was  publicly  contradicting 
the  report  of  his  resignation.  Stewart's  disgust  and  alarm  at  this  announce- 
ment were,  as  he  says,  unspeakable.^  He  knew  that  the  Rich  Company 
would  be  apprised  of  Flenniken's  position  and  would,  consequently,  hold 
the  fort  against  all  comers  and  he  was  convinced  that  Blackburn,  a  resolute 
and  reckless  officer,  would  execute  the  order  of  arrest  with  his  armed  posse, 
in  which  event  a  desperate  fight  would  ensue,  for  which  he  would  be  held 
responsible.  If  Flenniken  persisted  in  his  course,  the  order  of  Judge 
Cradlebaugh  was  possibly  invalid,  and  the  lawyer  might  be  called  to  a 
bitter  reckoning  for  his  assumption  of  authority.  With  these  thoughts 
in  his  mind  he  rose,  dressed  hastily,  and  went  out  in  search  of  Flenniken 
whom  he  soon  met  in  front  of  one  of  the  many  saloons.  The  judge  greeted 
him  blandly,  with  a  dignified  wave  of  the  hand,  but  Stewart  replied  hotly, 
demanding  his  resignation  at  once,  and  his  enlistment  in  a  posse  to  assist 
the  marshal  in  arresting  the  "jumpers"  on  the  St.  Louis  claim.  As  he 
spoke  he  laid  his  hand  heavily  on  Flenniken's  shoulders.  The  amazed 
judge  resisted  slightly,  but  the  impetuous  deputy  jerked  him  nearly  off  his 
feet  into  the  gutter  and  repeated  his  order  still  more  imperatively.  Then 
Flenniken,  recognizing  the  fact  that  he  was  a  prisoner  of  war  in  a  mining 
camp,  accompanied  Stewart  meekly,  though  the  latter  still  kept  his  hand  on 
the  judge's  coat  collar.  The  lawyer  led  his  captive  into  the  telegraph  office 
where  he  dictated  messages  to  Blackburn,  to  Grice,  the  marshal  appointed 
by  Flenniken,  to  Williams,  the  captain  of  the  garrison,  and  to  others, 
announcing  the  resignation  of  Flenniken  in  unmistakable  terms,  and 
ordering  all  persons  to  recognize  the  authority  held  by  Blackburn.  "  Now 
sign  these!"  said  Stewart,  turning  to  Flenniken.  The  half-dazed  judge 
obeyed.  The  lawyer  tossed  the  parcel  to  the  operator.  "Send  those  tel- 
egrams and  then  keep  away  from  that  instrument  for  an  hour  or  two!"' 
The  telegrams  were  soon  dispatched  to  Silver  City,  the  nearest  point  of 
communication  with  the  fort,  and  replies  were  received  an  hour  later 
announcing  the  surrender  of  the  garrison.      Nevertheless,  the  deputy 

'  Wm.  M.  Stewart. 


108  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

kept  watch  and  ward  over  the  judge  till  Blackburn  returned  to  Virginia 
City  with  his  prisoners^  and  brought  the  crest-fallen  garrison  before 
Judge  Cradlebaugh.  Then  Mr.  Stewart  made  his  appearance  in  court 
and  represented  to  the  judge  that  there  had  been,  as  his  honor  knew,  a 
conflict  of  authority,  and  that  doubtless  the  prisoners  supposed  them- 
selves to  have  some  sort  of  legal  justification  for  the  mistaken  position 
which  they  occupied.  In  view,  therefore,  of  the  anomalous  circumstances 
of  the  case,  he  hoped  the  Court  would  be  lenient  in  its  judgment  and 
release  the  persons  named  in  the  warrant  without  imposing  a  penalty. 
Judge  Cradlebaugh  humanely  consented,  and  the  astonished  prisoners 
were  at  once  discharged.^ 

David  S.  Terry,  the  principal  counsel  for  the  Rich  Company,  had  been 
unluckily  absent  in  San  Francisco  during  this  decisive  action,  but  on  his 
return,  after  viewing  the  field,  he  confessed  defeat  good  humoredly  in 
words  which  his  opponent  well  remembers:  "We  were  beaten  deservedly 
by  our  own  negligence,  for  we  never  should  have  trusted  our  general  in 
the  camp  of  the  enemy.  You  had  both  commanders,  and  it  is  no  wonder 
that  our  forces  were  routed;  but  it  is  too  late  now  to  grumble.  The 
victory  and  the  spoils  are  with  you."^ 

Judge  Flenniken  made  a  slight  attempt  afterward  to  assert  his 
authority,  but  his  dispatches  were  in  evidence  against  him,  and  he  was 
scarcely  willing  to  make  known  the  full  details  of  his  impromptu  resigna- 
tion. It  was  currently  believed  that  Mr.  Stewart's  persuasion  had  been 
very  cogent,  but  a  judge  who  could  not  maintain  his  own  seat  found  few 
supporters  in  a  mining  camp,  and  he  soon  returned  to  the  Eastern  States 
with  a  deep-rooted  distaste  for  mining-camp  law  and  proceedings  in  equity. 
His  rival  thus  held  his  seat  undisputed,  but  as  the  validity  of  his  tenure 
was  extremely  doubtful,  to  say  the  least,  in  spite  of  the  Utah  supreme 
court  confirmation,  legal  proceedings  were  virtually  at  an  end  until  the 
organization  of  the  new  Territory  of  Nevada  by  Act  of  Congress  approved 
March  2,  1861,  and  the  opening  of  district  courts  whose  authority  was 
unquestioned. 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  February  23,  1861;  Sacramento  Union,  March  6,  1861. 
-  William  M.  Stewart.  '  William  M.  Stewart. 


CHAPTEE    YII. 
CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES. 

The  report  of  the  probable  importance  of  the  new  mining  region  had 
influenced  Congress  to  consent  to  the  division  of  Utah  and  the  formation 
of  the  new  Territory.  The  chaotic  state  of  the  district  was  also  known, 
and  it  was  apprehended  that  the  bitter  feeling  which  existed  between  the 
newcomers  and  the  Mormon  council  at  Salt  Lake  City  might  induce  the 
people  of  the  district  to  revive  the  defunct  State  constitution  and  reinstall 
Governor  Roop,  or  even  to  join  the  seceded  Confederate  States  by  an 
attempted  dismemberment  of  Utah.  To  allay  the  prevailing  discontent 
and  bring  order  out  of  chaos  the  Territory  of  Nevada  was  created,  and 
the  territorial  officers  were  assigned  soon  after  to  their  respective  stations. 

The  town  of  Virginia  had  been  formally  incorporated  by  an  act  of  the 
Utah  Legislature  approved  January  18, 1861,  vesting  the  corporate  powers 
and  duties  in  a  board  of  five  trustees  to  hold  office  for  the  term  of  one 
year.^  The  first  election  of  trustees  was  held  accordingly  on  the  11th  of 
March,  1861,  when  the  lack  of  harmony  among  the  people  of  the  town  was 
again  made  evident  by  the  presence  of  nine  sets  of  candidates  in  the  field, 
though  very  little  honor  and  no  salary  was  attached  to  a  position  on  the 
board.  Many  of  the  qualified  citizens  did  not  vote  at  all,  but  the  five 
men  whose  names  headed  the  poll-lists  were  declared  to  be  duly  elected, 
though  no  one  received  a  majority  of  the  total  number  of  votes  cast — 1,200.^ 

When  the  first  governor  of  the  Territory,  James  W.  Nye,  arrived  at 
the  mines,  therefore,  on  the  15th  of  July,  1861,  the  city  of  Virginia  was 
prepared  to  receive  him  "with  great  pomp  and  ceremony."^  The  five 
trustees,  escorted  by  the  Virginia  City  brass  band  and  the  Virginia  Union 

'  Acts,  Resolutions,  and  Memorials,  Utah  Legislative  Assembly,  Tenth  Session,  1860-61. 
=  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  12  and  15,  1861;  Virginia  City  Correspondent. 
'      '  Sacramento  Union,  July  16,  1861 ;  Virginia  City  Correspondent. 

(109) 


110  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Guards,  proceeded  to  the  head  of  Gold  Cailon,  where  they  were  met  by  the 
Gold  Hill  Guards,  and  the  united  pageant  dazzled  the  eyes  of  the  new 
magistrate  as  he  ascended  the  steep  hill  leading  up  to  the  city.  The  band 
played  "Hail  to  the  Chief,'"  the  guards  presented  arms,  the  trustees  rose 
up  in  their  carriage  with  uncovered  heads,  and  the  populace  cheered 
enthusiastically.  The  frog  was  very  nearly  a  bull.  The  procession  then 
moved  back,  marching  through  the  principal  streets  and  under  a  "splendid 
arch  made  by  the  ladies  of  the  city,"  greeted  by  vociferous  cheers  and 
irregular  salvos  of  "minute  guns."  At  Union  Square  the  governor  was 
addressed  in  behalf  of  the  city  by  the  orator  of  the  day,  and  replied 
amidst  continued  cheering.  Then  followed  a  "splendid  dinner"  at  the 
International  Hotel  and  unlimited  speeches  and  toasts.  Everything  was 
"splendid"  and  the  new  metropolis  admired  itself  duly.  It  was  hoped 
that  the  day  would  pass  without  a  flaw  which  should  inform  the  governor 
that  the  customs  of  the  city  still  savored  of  the  mining  camp,  but  the 
hope  was  disappointed.  In  a  little  colloquy  before  the  windows  of  the 
International  Hotel  a  citizen  named  Butler  "made  himself  too  prominent 
with  his  pistol."  The  deputy  sheriff,  John  Williams,  undertook  the  dis- 
agreeable duty  of  arresting  him,  when  the  usual  impromptu  Washoe  duel 
took  place.^  Williams  was  the  best  marksman,  for  in  less  than  a  minute 
Butler  received  one  ball  in  the  side  of  his  knee  and  one  in  his  shoulder, 
while  a  third  scraped  his  face  roughly.  Then  he  yielded,  somewhat  to 
the  disgust  of  the  lookers-on,  who  did  not  consider  him  entitled  to  with- 
draw on  the  score  of  being  seriously  wounded. 

This  salute  could  scarcely  have  been  a  surprise  to  the  incoming  gov- 
ernor, for  he  already  knew  well  the  troubled  condition  of  his  province. 
An  orderly  city  does  not  crystallize  out  of  a  lawless  mining  camp  in  a  day 
or  a  year.  Moreover,  the  city  charter  was  radically  defective.  The  powers 
of  the  board  of  trustees  were  ill  defined  and  feebly  exercised.  The  police 
force  and  regulations  in  particular  were  totally  inadequate  and  the  main 
reliance  of  the  citizens  for  protection  was  upon  the  United  States  marshal 
and  his  deputies,  a  few  constables  extraordinary.  Williams  was  a  good 
example  of  this  irregular  police,  always  ready  to  take  part  in  a  fight,  but 

'Sacramento  Union,  July  16,  1861;  Virginia  City  Con-espondent. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  m 

loath  to  spoil  one  by  untimely  interference.  In  default  of  any  better 
method  of  settling  a  dispute,  trial  by  combat  was  practically  accepted  as 
satisfactory  to  the  general  public,  and  when  one  of  the  combatants  fell,  the 
survivor  was  either  permitted  to  leave  the  field  unquestioned  or  arrested 
as  a  matter  of  form  to  satisfy  the  requirements  of  the  law,  for  there  was  no 
prison  in  the  city,  and  consignments  to  the  county  jail  at  Carson  were  simply 
farcical.  Until  November,  1861,  this  place  of  confinement  was  a  little  log 
shanty,  standing  among  the  principal  drinking  saloons,^  from  which,  with 
slight  help  from  confederates,  or  unassisted,  criminals  of  ordinary  activity 
escaped  at  will,  and  their  recapture  was  rarely  attempted.  The  conviction 
of  a  murderer  by  an  ordinary  jury  was  an  anomaly,  and  capital  punish- 
ment by  process  of  law  had  never  been  inflicted  in  Carson  County  or 
the  new  Territory.^  Still  murders  were  commonly  avenged  in  a  rudely 
equitable  fashion.  Mining-camp  justice  demanded  an  eye  for  an  eye,  a 
tooth  for  a  tooth,  and  the  victor  in  a  Washoe  duel  might  expect  to  be  killed 
himself  by  some  comrade  of  his  victim,  who  in  turn  would  fall  before  the 
pistol  of  another.  Thus  originated  a  true  vendetta,  and  the  chain  of 
avengers  often  had  many  links.  Thirteen  consecutive  deaths  growing 
out  of  one  murder  have  been  traced  by  a  lawyer  of  Virginia  City,  and 
shorter  chains  are  known  to  all  Nevada  pioneei-s.^  In  this  way  these 
human  wolves  considerately  acted  like  Kilkenny  cats,  and  the  city  was 
relieved  by  degrees  of  its  incubus.  The  riddance  was  hastened  by  the 
action  of  fearless  citizens  whom  a  ruffian  would  occasionally  attempt  to 
bully.  Of  this  class  was  Van  Sickle,  a  ranchman  of  Carson  Valley,  who 
was  attacked  without  provocation  in  his  own  house  by  the  notorious  Sam. 
Brown  and  forced  to  fly  for  his  life,  as  he  was  without  weapons,  while 
Brown  was  armed  in  his  usual  fashion,  carrying  a  knife  in  his  boot- 
leg and  heavy  pistols  in  his  hip-pockets.  On  the  night  of  the  same  day 
Avhen  he  was  driven  from  his  home,  July  6,  1861,  Van  Sickle  lay  in  wait 
for  Brown  and  shot  him  as  coolly  as  he  would  have  shot  a  prowling  coyote. 
The  ruffian  was  killed  instantly,  and  the  community  agreed  with  the  out- 

_  '  Sacramento  Union,  December  1,  1861. 

^Virginia  City  Union,  September  5,  1863. 

^  See  also  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  9,  1871,  "A  Record  of  Blood." 


112  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

spoken  verdict  of  the  coroner's  jury  at  Genoa,  justifying  his  executioner — 
"it  served  him  right. "^ 

By  the  organic  act  of  the  Territory  the  governor  was  empowered  to 
appoint  all  county  officers,  and  did  what  he  could  with  this  auxiliary  staff  to 
maintain  order  at  the  mines;  but  until  the  meeting  of  the  legislative  assem- 
bly and  the  final  organization  of  the  district  courts  he  was  unable  to  check 
effectively  these  ruffianly  outbreaks.  The  reign  of  lawlessness  culminated 
in  the  murder  of  John  Blackburn,  Territorial  marshal  under  Judge  Cra- 
dlebaugh,  whose  service  in  the  contest  of  the  Lucy  Ella  and  St.  Louis 
Mining  Companies  has  been  noted.  The  fearless  acts  of  this  officer  made 
him  particularly  obnoxious  to  the  desperadoes  of  the  district,  but  he  was 
so  alert  and  well  armed  at  all  times  that  any  attack  upon  him  was  a  des- 
perate venture;  yet  he  was  killed  in  the  early  evening  (November  18, 
1861) ,  while  standing  in  a  well-lighted  and  crowded  saloon  of  Carson 
City.  He  was  not  off  his  guard,  for  when  a  ruffian,  William  Mayfield, 
came  through  the  crowd  toward  him,  he  scented  danger,  drew  a  pistol 
and  would  have  foiled  the  attack,  but  his  friends  unaccountably  inter- 
posed, and  he  was  stabbed  to  the  heart  under  their  arms.  With  his  last 
gasp  he  leveled  his  pistol,  but  fell  dead  before  he  could  pull  the  trigger, 
his  eyes  burning  with  the  passion  of  baffled  vengeance.  Mayfield  flour- 
ished his  bloody  knife  defiantly  and  made  his  escape  from  the  room  by 
the  aid  of  confederates,-  and  though  he  was  afterwards  hunted  down  and 
arrested,  he  broke  jail  as  a  matter  of  course,'  and  fled  to  Montana, 
where  he  finally  received  his  deserts  in  a  drunken  brawl.* 

The  murder  of  Blackburn,  though  not  directly  avenged,  aroused  such 
general  indignation  that  the  governor  was  strongly  supported  in  his  efforts 
to  suppress  the  growth  of  ruffianism,  and  during  the  session  of  the  first 
district  court,  closing  March  15, 1862,  a  number  of  flagrant  offenders  were 
tried,  convicted,  and  punished  by  fine  and  imprisonment.'^  A  new  jail 
was  constructed  in  Carson  County  in  November,  1861,  to  which  the  pris- 

'  Sacramento  Union,  July  8,  1861 ;   Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  13,  1861. 

»  Sacramento  Union,  November  23,  1861  ;   Carson  City  Correspondent,  November  18,  1861. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  December  1,  1862. 

■•  Comstock  Papers,  No.  4,  by  Henry  de  Groot ;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  January  27, 1877. 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  28,  1862 ;  Virginia  City  Correspondent,  March  21,  1862. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  113 

oners  were  transferred  from  the  old  and  insecure  hut.  Through  the  new 
jail,  built  of  adobe,  a  heavy  beam  extended,  to  which  iron  chains  were 
bolted  and  used  as  shackles  for  the  worst  offenders.^  Of  the  sixteen  pris- 
oners thus  committed  to  the  new  jail  nine  were  charged  with  the  crime  of 
murder.^  It  is  certain  that  the  number  of  criminals  confined  in  jail  was 
small  compared  with  those  suffered  to  go  at  large  in  the  district,  but  more 
definite  statistics  cannot  be  obtained.  Exact  tabulated  records  are  not, 
however,  essential.  For  the  purposes  of  this  history  it  is  sufficient  to 
show  how  the  surface  current  of  lawlessness  was  intermixed  with  the 
forces  which  were  steadily  establishing  the  mining  camps  on  a  firm  and 
stable  basis.  Of  these  constructive  agents  the  development  of  the  milling 
industry  was  the  chief. 

While  the  rival  claimants  were  wrangling  over  the  possession  of  the 
ledges  and  searching  for  ore  with  limited  success,  the  profits  gained  by 
the  early  quartz  mills  and  the  reported  richness  and  extent  of  the  ore 
bodies  excited  a  speculative  mania  which  clogged  the  sierran  passes  with 
ponderous  loads  of  engines  and  mill  machinery  and  dotted  the  valley  and 
canon  water-courses  with  rising  buildings.^ 

The  number  of  mills  in  process  of  erection  was  totally  out  of  propor- 
tion to  the  quantity  of  ore  so  far  shown  to  exist,  but  the  builders  were  so 
anxious  to  share  the  known  profits  of  the  pioneer  mill-men  that  their 
heads  had  no  room  for  prudent  estimates  of  supply  and  demand.  Besides, 
they  believed  the  boasts  of  the  sanguine  prospectors,  most  of  whom  could 
show  samples  of  rock  from  their  claims  with  assays  of  tempting  richness. 
The  ledges  were  only  waiting  to  be  crushed  to  yield  up  their  precious 
contents,  and  the  only  bar  to  fortune  was  the  inevitable  delay  in  trans- 
porting the  requisite  machinery  and  mill  supplies  across  the  mountains 
and  in  putting  the  stamps  in  motion.  Incited  by  competition  and  hope 
of  gain  the  work  was  pushed  with  almost  incredible  rapidity  in  face  of  the 
attendant  obstacles.  The  Galifornian  foundries  and  machine  shops  were 
taxed  to  their  utmost  to  keep  pace  with  their  multiplying  orders,^  and 
hundreds  of  creaking  wagons,  burdened  with  their  freight  of  iron,  were 

-  Sacramento  Union,  December  1,  1861.  «  Sacramento  Union,  December  1,  1861. 

^Sacramento  Union,  July  15,  1861. 
8    H   C 


114 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


dragged  over  the  steep  grades  of  the  Sierras  to  the  valleys  beyond.^ 
Foundations  of  roughly  broken  stone  were  hurriedly  laid  to  support  the 
machinery,  and  frames  of  timbers  were  hastily  put  together  and  covered 
with  boards  to  serve  as  a  shelter.^  Lines  of  these  flimsily-built  structures 
extended  along  the  Carson  River  and  up  the  canons  wherever  a  thread 
of  water  flowed,  and  often  where  no  water  was  to  be  had  except  during 
the  spring  months  from  melting  snow-drifts  on  the  neighboring  hills. 
Seventy-six  mills,  running  1,153  stamps,  with  an  estimated  crushing 
capacity  of  1,200  tons  daily,  were  erected  within  a  radius  of  16  miles  from 
the  mines  before  the  end  of  the  year  1861,  and  twenty  more  were  planned 
or  building.* 


Hills. 

Stamps. 

Cost. 

County. 

8 
6 

40 
22 

114 
106 
573 
360 

9200,000 
$1,200,000 
$3, 700, 000 
$1, 000, 000 

Onneby. 
■Waahoo. 
Storey. 
Lyon. 

As  fast  as  the  machinery  could  be  set  in  motion  supplies  of  quartz 
were  fed  to  the  stamps  and  the  mill-men  were  prepared  to  catch  the 
powdered  gold  and  silver  in  their  rows  of  pans.  Loads  of  rock  had  been 
brought  at  a  heavy  cost  from  distant  ledges,  and  the  claim  locators 
watched  for  favorable  returns  as  eagerly  as  the  mill  owners,*  so  that  hun- 
dreds were  disappointed  when  ton  after  ton  was  crushed  only  to  reveal  its 
hopeless  barrenness  or  profitless  scarcity  of  metal.  Thus  ten  tons  of 
selected  quartz  from  the  Calahulalode  yielded  in  gold  $197.25  and  in  silver 
$20.76,  or  an  average  per  ton  of  $21.85;  ten  tons  from  the  Poorman  lode, 
near  Silver  City,  $179  in  gold  and  $38.32  in  silver,  or  $21.63  per  ton ; 
eight  tons  from  the  Yellow  Jacket  "  back  lode,"  Gold  Hill,  $69.88  in  gold 
and  $18.84  in  silver,  or  $11.80  per  ton ;  and  twenty  tons  from  the  Crown 
Point  claim,  $33.8.65  in  gold  and  $61.36  in  silver,  or  $20  per  ton.' 

'Sacramento  Union,  July  17,  18,  19,  20,  and  23,  1861;  Trip  to  Washoe;  Special  Correspondent. 

^ Sacramento  Union,  November?,  1861;  Special  Correspondent,  Silver  City,  November  4,  1861. 

3  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  December  4,  1861 ;  Gold  Hill  Correspondent,  November  30, 1861. 

Henry  de  Groot,  Census  Marshal,  Nevada  Territory,  1861;  "Pioneer  Mills  and  Mill-Men,"  Mining  and 
Scientific  Press,  February  10,  1877.  "No  less  than  seventy-six  mills,  carrying  a  total  of  1,200  stamps  and  cost- 
ing an  aggregate  of  o^'er"|6,000,000,  were  finished  and  started  by  the  end  of  1861, and  some  forty  or  fifty  arrastras 
and  several  patio  yards  were  also  built." 

•"Territorial  Enterprise,  July  13,  1861 ;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin.  July  17, -1861. 

»Almarin  B.  Paul;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  21,  April  4,  1863. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  US 

The  return  from  the  lode-claim  of  the  "Sucker  Company"  was  par- 
ticularly disappointing,  for  this  lode  was  a  popular  favorite,  selling  in 
1860  as  high  as  $130  per  foot,  and  its  owners  confidently  proclaimed  their 
assurance  that  it  would  yield  from  $500  to  $1,000  per  ton.  Five  tons  of 
selected  quartz  were  sent  to  Paul's  mill,  and  the  return  was  made — of  gold, 
$179.86,  of  silver,  $22.27,  or  $40.50  per  ton ;  but  as  the  owners  were  not 
satisfied  with  this  test,  thirty-five  tons  of  average  quartz  from  the  lode  were 
crushed  in  the  same  mill  with  a  product  of  gold,  $629.85,  silver,  $64.90,  or 
$18.58  per  ton.  To  offset  the  damaging  returns  the  managers  of  the  com- 
pany declared  Paul's  mill  process  a  failure  and  sent  a  quantity  of  ore  to  San 
Francisco,  where  assays  were  obtained  after  the  consignment  had  been 
"salted"  with  Californian  gold,  and  Paul  was  confronted  with  the  figures; 
but  as  the  assays  carelessly  reported  the  value  of  the  gold  at  $17  per  oz., 
while  the  Washoe  gold  never  exceeded  $10  per  oz.  in  value,  he  threatened 
to  expose  the  swindle,  and  the  managers  concluded  not  to  publish  the 
re-assuring  certificate.^ 

The  product  of  rock  from  other  claims  was  still  less  satisfactory,  and 
it  was  apparent  that  comparatively  few  out  of  the  thousands  of  claims 
located  could  be  worked  profitably  while  the  mill  charges  were  from  $20 
to  $30  per  ton.  It  was  conclusively  shown,  also,  that  inaccurate  or  pur- 
posely exaggerated  assays  had  been  made,  and  that  still  more  frequently 
fragments  of  ore  had  been  picked  from  narrow  seams  and  stringers  inclosed 
in  worthless  porphyry  and  palmed  off  as  fair  samples  of  a  continuous  vein. 
Even  when  the  ore  bodies  were  large  and  rich  enough  to  yield  moderate 
returns,  if  skillfully  worked,  only  a  low  percentage  could  be  extracted  by 
the  crude  methods  of  reduction  generally  employed.  At  least  half  of  the 
mill  owners  were  ignorant  of  their  business  and  were  forced  to  learn  by 
watching  their  better-informed  neighbors  or  in  the  costly  school  of  original 
experiment.  A  century  before,  an  observant  Spanish  critic  had  written, 
most  pertinently:^  "A  class  of  men  so  necessary  to  the  mining  body  as 
the  amalgamators  should  be  well  educated,  and  should  be  subjected  to  an 
examination  as  the  assayers  are  under  our  75th  Ordinance  and  as  is  the 
practice  in  the  royal  stores  and  the  royal  mints,  notwithstanding  that  less 

'  Almarin  B.  Paul.  '  Gamboa's  Commentaries,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  2,  p.  199. 


116  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOUK  LODE. 

experience  is  there  required  than  in  the  business  of  an  amalgamator  or 
smelter — a  business  which  takes  a  much  larger  range  and  calls  for  far  more 
skill,  and  any  carelessness  in  which  may  lead  to  irreparable  mischief.  For 
the  task  of  bringing  the  silver  to  the  proper  point  should  not  be  intrusted  to 
a  mere  ignorant  blockhead."  But  the  proposed  requirement  of  evidence  of 
competence  from  mill-men  would  have  abridged  the  privilege  of  American 
citizens  to  waste  the  mineral  resources  of  the  public  lands  without  hin- 
drance. Moreover,  the  necessary  expenses  of  reduction  were  so  heavy 
that  only  quartz  yielding  a  high  average  return  could  be  worked  at  a 
profit.  If  the  mills  were  built  near  the  mines  or  in  the  canons  the  supply 
of  water  was  scanty  and  uncertain ;  or  if  along  the  winding  course  of  the 
Carson,  it  was  necessary  to  transport  the  ore  in  wagons  from  seven  to  twenty 
miles.  For  a  time  the  stunted  growth  of  nut-pines  and  cedar  in  the 
neighboring  ravines  could  be  used  as  fuel,  but  it  was  soon  requisite  to 
drag  the  firewood  from  distant  points  and  even  to  cut  it  on  the  sierran 
slopes  twenty  miles  from  the  mines.  Salt,  mercury,  and  other  mill  supplies 
were  brought  from  California  at  a  cost  already  stated,  and  the  average 
wages  of  a  mill-hand  were  from  $4  to  $6  per  day.  Under  these  disadvan- 
tages it  is  not  surprising  that  the  expected  profits  were  not  realized.  The 
inexperience  and  want  of  foresight  were  so  general  that  few  even  attempted 
to  store  up  a  supply  of  wood  and  quartz  sufficient  to  keep  their  mills 
running  during  the  winter,  when  the  roads  became  impassable.^  Hence, 
in  January,  1862,  of  the  numerous  mills  in  the  district  only  four  or  five 
were  able  to  continue  work,  and  even  as  late  as  April  of  the  same  year 
only  twenty-three  were  actively  employed.^  As  the  season  advanced  others 
were  furnished  with  quartz,  rich,  poor,  and  indifferent,  and  the  clatter  of 
stamps  resounded  day  and  night  through  the  canons  and  disturbed  the 
dreams  of  the  farmers  in  the  valleys;^  still  there  was  at  no  time  a  suffi- 
cient supply  of  ore  taken  from  the  mines  for  the  mills  already  built,  and 
yet  the  fever  of  speculation  was  not  abated  till  the  end  of  the  year  (1862), 
when  nearly  one  hundred  mills  were  standing  in  the  four  counties  of 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  December  21,  1861 ;  Virginia  City  Correspondent,  December  17,  1861. 
'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  12,  1862 ;  Virginia  City  Correspondent,  April  9, 1862. 
"  Territorial  Enterprise,  March  15,  May  18,  1862. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISOEGANIZING  AGENCIES,  117 

Washoe,  Ormsby,  Storey,  and  Lyon,  one-fifth  as  many  as  in  all  the  mining 
districts  of  California.^  Most  of  these  were  of  the  simplest  and  rudest 
description,  but  the  combined  capacity  was  imposing  and  useless,  for  if  the 
low  estimate  of  twelve  hundred  tons  per  day  be  taken,  this  was  fully  three 
times  as  much  as  the  mines  were  producing  of  milling  ore,  and  the  greater 
part  of  the  mills  must  lie  idle  for  half  the  year  at  least.  Competition 
aggravated  the  evils  of  scarcity,  for,  as  a  fixed  sum  per  ton  was  paid  for 
milling,  it  was  the  interest  of  the  custom-mills  to  reduce  as  many  tons 
per  day  as  possible,  however  imperfectly,  in  order  to  compete  with  one 
another  at  a  profit.  Guarantees  of  an  arbitrary  percentage  of  returns 
based  on  the  assay  value  of  the  ore  were  rarely  given,  and  unless  the 
customer  became  disgusted  at  the  scanty  yield  of  bullion  and  withdrew 
his  patronage  the  mill  owner  cared  little  for  the  constant  waste  of  metal 
in  the  slimes  and  tailings,  which  were  washed  away  directly  or  indirectly 
into  the  river.^  Thus  the  Carson  flowed,  like  the  Pactolus,  over  precious 
sand,  and  its  bed  is  lined  with  ore  in  layers  of  varying  thickness.  It  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  one-third  of  the  ore  product  during  the  early  years 
of  mining  on  the  lode  was  lost  in  the  process  of  reduction  through  care- 
lessness, ignorance,  and  reckless  competition.  Even  when  the  mill-man 
was  painstaking  and  scrupulous,  or  when  he  bought  the  ore  from  the 
mines  outright,  he  was  often  unable  to  save  a  high  percentage  of  its  assay 
value,  but  this  failure  was  the  necessary  accompaniment  of  the  years  of 
experiment  through  which  a  new  process  is  perfected. 

The  use  of  heavy  mullers  and  the  application  of  steam  as  a  means  of 
heating  the  pulp  had  been  made  in  the  spring  of  1860,  as  narrated  in  a 
previous  chapter;  but  the  pans  of  Brevoort  and  Woodworth  were  defect- 
ive in  important  details.  In  1860  Mr.  William  H.  Rowland  changed  the 
form  of  the  Brevoort  castings  considerably,  constructing  a  strong,  service- 
able working-pan  five  feet  in  diameter  and  twelve  inches  deep,  with  a 
muller  and  ring  weighing  from  600  to  700  pounds.^  These  pans  were 
found  to  be  efficient  for  the  amalgamation  of  ores,  but  were  not  designed 

'  Sau  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  October  30,  1862,  Almarin  B.  Paul,  Correspondent. 
"  Vide  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  28,  1871 ;  "  Loss  of  Slimes  and  Tailings." 
2  William  H.  Howland,  Almarin  B.  Paul. 


118  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

at  first  to  be  used  as  a  substitute  for  the  Mexican  kettle.  In  the  winter  of 
1860-'61,  however,  Mr.  JHowland  (at  the  request  of  Mr.  Henry  P.  Wakelee, 
a  chemist  of  San  Francisco,  who  was  experimenting  upon  the  reduction 
of  silver  ores  in  his  laboratory  in  that  city)  contrived  a  flue  or  hollow 
iron  chamber,  which  was  fitted  to  the  bottom  of  an  iron  pan  and  served 
as  a  funnel  or  chimney  for  the  hot  air  and  smoke  of  a  stove  placed  beneath. 
Wakelee  intended  to  heat  the  pulp,  as  in  the  cazo  or  kettle  process,  but  it 
was  found  that  the  flue  was  liable  to  become  choked  with  soot  which  col- 
lected on  its  sides.  In  accordance  with  a  suggestion  given  by  Mr.  Almarin 
B.  Paul,  who  was  using  a  stove  and  pan  of  the  same  design  in  his  Gold 
Hill  mill,  Mr.  Howland  substituted  steam  conducted  through  pipes  into 
the  hollow  chamber  beneath  the  pan,  in  place  of  the  stove,  and  at  once 
began  to  construct  pans  of  this  model. 

Meanwhile  ingenious  mechanics  of  California  had  cudgeled  their 
brains  over  pans  of  different  devices,  corresponding  with  mill-men  at  the 
Washoe  mines  and  elsewhere,  and  trying  one  variation  after  another;  but 
until  Zenas  Wheeler,  in  December,  1861,  contrived  a  method  of  establish- 
ing a  circulation  of  the  pulp  in  the  pan,  no  improvement  of  marked 
importance  had  been  made.  By  the  rotation  of  the  muller  the  pulp  was 
thrown  from  the  centre  of  the  pan  toward  the  circumference,  and  Wheel- 
er's object  was  to  devise  a  plan  by  which  the  pulp  might  be  thrown  back 
toward  the  centre  to  be  again  ground  between  the  faces  of  the  revolving- 
shoes  and  dies.  To  deflect  the  current,  therefore,  he  arranged  curved 
plates  extending  from  a  frame  at  the  centre  of  the  pan  to  its  circumfer- 
ence. The  frame  was  supported  on  the  upper  end  of  the  muller-shaft  in 
such  a  manner  that  the  plates  would  follow  any  adjustment  of  the  muller 
and  bear  the  same  relation  to  it  whether  in  its  highest  or  lowest  working 
position.  The  outer  ends  of  the  plates  were  supported  by  slides  cast  upon 
the  inner  surface  of  the  pan.  The  effect  of  these  plates  was  to  counteract 
the  centrifugal  force  generated  by  the  rotation  of  the  muller  and  to  cause 
the  pulp  to  pass  toward  the  centre  of  the  muller  and  down  through  the 
central  opening,  to  be  again  forced  outward  between  the  muller  and  bed- 
plate. In  January,  1862,  drawings  of  Wheeler's  pan  were  received  at  the 
Miners'  Foundry  at  San  Francisco,  and  the  first  working-model  was  con- 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  119 

structed,  though  pans  of  this  design  were  not  put  to  practical  use  in  a 
quartz -mill  until  June  of  that  year.  Their  serviceability  was  quickly 
demonstrated,  and  the  demand  for  them  became  so  extensive  that  up  to 
the  close  of  the  winter  of  1863-'64  the  Miners'  Foundry  manufactured 
on  an  average  one  per  day.^  This  extraordinary  popularity  excited 
the  jealousy  of  a  rival  inventor  and  gave  rise  to  the  noteworthy  suit  of 
Thomas  Varney  vs.  Zenas  Wheeler  et  al.,  for  alleged  infringement  of 
patent,  before  Judge  Ogden  Hoffman,  in  the  United  States  Circuit  Court 
for  the  Northern  District  of  California. 

In  the  trial  of  this  case  it  was  clearly  set  forth  by  Judge  Hoffman  that 
the  employment  of  a  grinding  muller  with  a  central  opening  rotating  upon 
a  fixed  surface  was  not  a  novel  invention  and  therefore  not  patentable. 
But  the  plea  of  infringement  was  mainly  based  on  Varney's  device  of 
curved  or  spiral  scrapers,  arranged  relatively  with  the  upper  surface  of 
the  rotating  muller  in  such  manner  as  to  insure  the  movement  of  all 
heavy  substances  in  the  pulp.  Varney  had  applied  for  a  patent  in  1861, 
which  was  issued  December  16,  1862,  a  year  before  Wheeler  obtained  a 
patent  for  his  pan  (December  8, 1863),  but  the  judge  ruled  that  the  Varney 
scrapers  were  merely  modifications  of  previous  devices  used  in  the  Knox 
and  other  pans  to  prevent  the  lodgment  of  lumps  on  the  top  of  the  mul- 
ler, and  that  the  curved  plates  of  Wheeler  differed  from  these  scrapers  in 
form,  arrangement,  object,  and  effect.  It  was  shown  in  evidence  also  that 
Wheeler's  muller  shoes  and  dies  differed  materially  from  those  designed  by 
Varney  in  1861,  the  surfaces  of  which  were  horizontal  planes  with  radial 
grooves  or  slots,  while  the  Wheeler  pan  shoes  and  dies  were  fashioned  so 
that  their  faces  met  like  the  blades  of  a  pair  of  shears,  and  spiral  ridges  on 
the  muller  were  arranged  to  correspond  with  reverse  ridges  on  the  inner 
surface  of  the  pan,  in  the  design  of  raising  the  pulp  and  promoting  circu- 
lation. As  it  was  established,  therefore,  that  in  no  patentable  detail  were 
the  original  Wheeler  and  Varney  pans  alike.  Judge  Hoffman  had  no  hesi- 
tation in  deciding  in  favor  of  the  defendant,  Wheeler.^  The  defendant 
had,  indeed,  far  more  reason  to  claim  an  infringement  of  his  own  patent 

'  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  May  28,  1864. 

"  Thomas  Vamey  vs.  Zenas  Wheeler  et  al,,  United  States  Circuit  Court  for  Northern  District  of  California, 
1864. 


120  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

by  Varney,  for  the  latter  had  discarded  several  of  his  original  devices  and 
supplied  their  place  with  working  parts  which  differed  very  slightly  from 
those  invented  by  his  rival. 

In  the  first  Wheeler  pans  manufactured,  steam  was  conducted  into  a 
hollow  chamber  beneath  the  pan  substantially  similar  to  the  flue  designed 
for  the  use  of  Mr.  Wakelee,  but  in  the  summer  of  1862  these  pans  were 
constructed  with  pipes  admitting  steam  directly  to  the  pulp.  Wheeler's 
mullers  and  shoes  were  much  heavier  than  any  previously  used,  weighing 
from  2,100  to  2,200  pounds.  The  diameter  of  his  pan  was  4  feet  and  its 
depth  22  inches.^  So  complete  and  well  adapted  were  the  working  parts 
of  this  pan  that  since  its  first  introduction  no  radical  changes  have  been 
made  in  its  construction. 

Hepburn  and  Peterson,  in  the  summer  of  1863,*  began  to  manufacture 
a  pan  of  original  design,  the  bottom  being  an  inverted  cone,  with  dies 
affixed  to  the  cone-shaped  surface  and  mullers  made  to  correspond.  It 
was  held  that  with  pans  of  this  model  the  pulp  would  fall  toward  the 
centre  by  natural  gravitation,  and  a  constant  current  would  thus  be 
obtained  which  would  obviate  all  necessity  for  wings  or  scrapers.  The 
grinding  efficiency  of  the  conical  as  contrasted  with  the  flat-bottomed  pan 
was  theoretically  as  1.3251:  1.1852,^  but  a  discrepancy  was  alleged  to  exist 
between  the  theoretical  and  the  practical  efficiency,  occasioned  to  no  little 
extent  by  the  unsteady  and  swinging  motion  of  the  conical  muller,  whose 
greater  base  was  upward;  for  the  muller,  wearing  away  at  its  greater 
circumference  and  then  coming  to  bear-  almost  entirely  on  its  lower  and 
smaller  base,  "seems  to  toss  about  and  labor  like  a  ship  in  a  heavy  sea, 
scarce  making  a  knot  toward  the  destined  haven."* 

Two  years  later  Zenas  Wheeler  and  P.  M.  Randall  patented  another 
pan,  in  which  the  grinding  surfaces  were  tractory  conoidal  plates,  alleged 
to  be  greatly  superior  in  grinding  properties  to  both  plain  circular  and 
conical  plates.*     Schiele,  a  miller  of  Oldham,  England,  was  said  to  have 

'  William  H.  Howland,  San  Francisco,  Cal. 

°  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  April  9, 1864. 

'  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  May  19,  1866,  June  17,  1866. 

■•  P.  M.  Kandall ;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  June  17,  1866. 

'Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  July  1,  1865. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  121 

practically  demonstrated  this  conclusion  several  years  before,  producing  as 
much  flour  with  a  2-foot  runner  of  that  design  as  with  a  4-foot  flat  millstone. 
The  relative  grinding  effects  of  the  three  forms  of  muller  were  computed 
to  be,  theoretically:^  Plane  or  flat-bottomed,  1.1852;  conical,  1.3251; 
tractory,  1.7778.  The  inventors  claimed  that  the  working  efficiency  of 
their  pan  was  not  inferior  to  its  theoretical  superiority,  alleging  that  their 
pan  (the  Excelsior  Grinder  and  Amalgamator)  would  reduce  177  tons  of 
ore^  to  the  same  degree  of  fineness  in  the  same  length  of  time  in  which 
98  tons  could  be  reduced  in  the  flat-bottomed  pan  and  115  tons  in  the 
conical  pan.  The  conical  and  tractory  pans  are  undoubtedly  ingenious 
in  design,  and  the  claims  of  their  inventors  as  to  their  grinding  efficiency, 
compa-red  with  the  flat-bottomed  pan,  are  probably  justified;^  but  in  the 
opinion  of  many  practical  mill-men  their  use  is  attended  by  an  excessive 
loss  of  mercury  which  is  too  finely  divided  by  the  action  of  the  grinding 
surfaces.  It  is  possible  to  have  too  thorough  pulverization,  as  Gamboa 
noted  when  he  wrote :  "  The  first  stirring  and  trampling  (in  the  patio 
process)  must  be  performed  with  care  and  gentleness  lest  the  quicksilver 
should  become  too  minutely  divided  and  form  '  lis,'  which  is  the  term 
applied  when  it  separates  into  almost  imperceptible  particles."* 

While  these  inventors  were  at  work  in  California,  time  and  money 
Avere  expended  lavishly  in  Nevada  in  trying  and  re-trying  variations  in 
the  form  and  structure  of  the  different  pans.  In  this  way  the  Washoe 
mills  have  been  technical  schools,  by  whose  instruction  the  ore-reducing 
industry  of  the  whole  country  has  largely  benefited,  and  the  cost  of  the 
training,  however  large,  is  inconsiderable  compared  with  its  importance 
and  value. 

At  the  outset  money  was  thrown  away  doubtless  in  useless  experi- 
ments with  so-called  "secret"  and  humbug  processes,**  for  not  content  with 
the  results  obtained  by  the  careful  use  of  mercury,  salt,  and  sulphate  of 
copper,  all  manner  of  mixtures,  liquid  and  solid,  were  added  to  the  pulp 
in  the  pans  with  a  mysterious  formality  which  matched  the  demeanor  of 

'  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  May  19,  1866. 

'Seventh  Annual  Circular  (18(16)  of  Miners'  Foundry,  San  Francisco,  p.  23. 

'U.  S.  Geological  Exploration  of  40th  parallel,  vol.  Ill ;  Mining  Industry,  p.  223. 

''  Gamboa's  Commentaries,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  II,  p.  201. 

^Almarin  B.  Paul;  William  Wright. 


122  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  three  weird  sisters  in  compounding  their  hell-broth.  Drugs  with 
strange  names  were  tried  in  allopathic  and  homeopathic  doses — acids  of 
all  sorts  were  poured  over  the  steaming  mass — bark  from  the  cedar  trees 
and  the  native  sage-brush  was  boiled  to  a  strong  decoction  and  the  bitter 
tea  administered  to  the  patient  pulp.  A  humorous  observer  remarked, 
with  apparent  truth,  that  the  "object  of  many  inventors  of  processes 
appeared  to  be  to  physic  the  silver  out  of  the  rock,  or  at  least  to  make  it 
so  sick  that  it  would  be  obliged  to  loose  its  hold  upon  the  matrix  and  come 
out  to  be  caught  by  the  quicksilver  lying  in  wait  for  it  at  the  bottom  of  the 
pans."^  Process  peddlers  hawked  about  their  wares  at  high  prices  and 
mill  superintendents  dabbled  with  odorous  chemicals  in  private  labora- 
tories. Some  of  the  acid  solutions  cleansed  the  mercury  of  foreign 
impurities  and  in  so  far  aided  the  process  of  amalgamation,  but  the  value 
of  the  other  compounds  has  never  been  detected.'^  Still  these  mummeries 
did  not  seriously  interfere  with  the  progress  of  the  intelligent  observations 
made  by  trained  mill-men  and  inventive  mechanics  in  perfecting  the  pan 
process,  and  were  laughed  away  at  length  in  the  light  of  a  broader  experi- 
ence and  a  general  acquaintance  with  elementary  chemical  principles. 

More  money  was  wasted  by  the  imprudent  adoption  of  imperfect 
mechanical  devices  and  unsuitable  processes  than  was  expended  in  the 
trial  of  humbugs.  Mills  were  furnished  with  expensive  machinery  which 
failed  upon  trial  to  reduce  ore  cheaply  or  effectively  and  was  of  necessity 
discarded,^  and  money  was  lavishly  expended  also  in  the  construction  and 
equipment  of  mills  belonging  to  wealthy  mining  corporations  as  if  drawn 
from  an  inexhaustible  treasury.* 

The  Ophir  milling  establishment,  near  Washoe  Lake,  12  miles  from 
the  mines  by  road,  covered  fully  an  acre  of  ground.  Besides  the  mill 
buildings  proper — large  and  costly  structures — the  shops,  stables,  carriage- 
houses,  quarters  for  workmen,  offices,  and  superintendent's  residence 
constituted  a  miniature  city.  Pasture-lands,  grain-fields,  and  vegetable- 
gardens  surrounded  the  hacienda,  and  two  thousand  acres  of  woodland 

'William  Wright  (Dan  de  Quille);  Big  Bonanza, p.  139. 

"  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  February  4,  1861 ;  Almarin  B.  Paul,  Silver  City,  January  31,  1861. 

^Alpheus  Bull,  President  Gould  and  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1864-72. 

■•Henry  de  Groot;  " Pioneer  Mills  and  Mill-Men." 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  123 

on  the  neighboring  hills  belonged  to  the  company.^  In  cutting  and  haul- 
ing wood,  preparing  lumber  in  the  saw-mill,  burning  charcoal,  and  other 
outside  duties  nearly  one  hundred  men  were  constantly  engaged,  while  a 
still  greater  number  were  employed  in  the  reducing-works.  These  works 
were  built  and  equipped  at  extraordinary  cost  for  the  reduction  of  ore 
by  the  barrel  or  Freiburg  and  patio  processes.  In  other  districts  both 
methods  were  well  approved,  but  neither  were  suited  to  the  requirements 
of  the  work  at  Washoe,  for  the  high  cost  of  labor  and  fuel  and  the  charges 
for  transporting  the  ore  from  the  mines  barred  the  employment  of  the 
barrel  process,  except  in  the  reduction  of  high-grade  ores,  and  owing 
to  unfavorable  climatic  conditions  and  unskillful  treatment  the  results 
obtained  from  the  patio  process  were  never  satisfactory.  Up  to  the  1st 
of  April,  1862,  21,000  tons  of  ore  had  been  quarried  from  the  Ophir  mine, 
but  only  a  selected  portion  of  3,000  tons  had  been  reduced.  The  bul- 
lion product  was  $980,000,  yet  only  one-ninth  of  this  sum  had  been  paid 
to  the  stockholders  as  dividends.     The  official  report  is  of  interest: — 

Amount  received  for  ore  and  bars $980,000 

Amount  expended  on  capital  account $300,000 

Amount  expended  for  working  expenses 559,200 

Amount  paid  fordividends 100,800 

Balance  on  hand 20,000 

$980,000^ 

If  the  actual  expense  of  delivering  the  21,000  tons  on  the  surface  be 
reckoned  at  $7  per  ton,  a  sum  considered  ample  for  this  purpose,  the 
extraordinary  sum  of  |349,200  must  have  been  paid  for  reduction  of  3,000 
tons,  freight,  and  office  expenses.  When  the  original  expense  of  the 
reduction-works  is  considered,  amounting  to  more  than  two-thirds  of  the 
sum  expended  on  capital  account,  it  is  evident  that  the  Ophir  mill  was 
a  costly  experiment  for  the  stockholders  of  the  company. 


3 


'San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  June  3,  1861,  Waslioe  Correspondence;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bul- 
letin, October  24  and  30,  1862 ;  "  Opliir  Works,"  Letters  of  Almarin  B.  Paul ;  Pioneer  Mills  and  Mill-Men,  Henry 
de  Groot;  Comstock  Papers,  No.  17,  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  February  24,  1877. 

=  Official  Report  of  Secretary  of  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1862;  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  April 
5,  1862. 

^Vide  also  Henry  de  Groot,  "Pioneer  Mills  and  Mill-Men,"  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  February  10,  1877. 


124  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  extraordinary  mill  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company  was,  how- 
ever, the  most  conspicuous  monument  of  inexperience  and  extravagance 
ever  erected  in  a  mining  district.  A  rocky  point  two  miles  east  of  Vir- 
ginia City,  at  the  junction  of  Six  and  Seven-Mile  canons,  was  transformed 
into  an  artificial  plateau,^  on  which  was  erected  a  building  in  the  form  of 
the  Greek  cross,  250  feet  long^  with  arms  75  feet  in  length  and  50  feet  in 
width.  The  lower  story  and  foundations  were  constructed  of  massive 
stone  blocks  supporting  a  heavy  frame  superstructure  of  finished  wood, 
adorned  with  broad  verandas,  and  painted  inside  and  out.^  Smooth 
approaches  were  cut  out  and  blasted  over  the  hill-sides,  arched  sewers 
were  built  of  hewn  stone,  and  graded  terraces,  ascended  by  flights  of 
broad  stone  steps,  surrounded  the  mill.  On  the  summit  of.the  hill  above 
the  plateau  a  large  reservoir  was  excavated  in  the  solid  rock  and  supplied 
with  water  from  Virginia  City,  from  which  iron  pipes  conducted  the  water 
to  hydrants  disposed  at  regular  intervals  over  the  mill  terraces.^  A 
stranger,  at  sight  of  the  stately  edifice  rising  in  the  centre  of  a  group  of 
offices,  shops,  stables,  and  laborers'  cottages,  would  naturally  have  sup- 
posed it  the  mansion  of  some  wealthy  land-owner  rather  than  a  mill 
built  in  a  barren  district  to  crush  silver  ore,  nor,  on  approaching  nearer, 
would  he  have  been  undeceived  by  the  presence  of  an  oval  basin  of  clear 
water,  50  feet  long  and  30  feet  wide,  in  whose  centre  three  water-nymphs 
supported  a  rock  shell  whereon  floated  a  white  swan  that  with  upturned 
head  spouted  a  jet  of  water  high  in  air.  The  twin  calves  dragging  a 
light  cart  over  the  lawn,  the  cackle  of  poultry,  the  grunting  of  swine, 
and  the  lowing  of  cattle  would  have  heightened  the  illusion.  Only  the 
impertinent  clatter  of  the  stamps  jarred  upon  the  sense  as  unsuited  to 
these  surroundings,  although  every  pains  was  taken  to  make  the  neces- 
sary work  of  milling  as  inoffensive  as  possible,  and  the  disagreeable 
powder  from  the  stamps  was  quickly  fanned  to  a  tightly-closed  dust-room. 
It  was  found  expedient  to  make  an  addition  to  the  first  mill  62J  feet  in 
length ;  but  the  only  objection  urged  against  the  new  structure  was  its 

'  Sacramento  Union,  November  15,  1862 ;  from  Virginia  City  Daily  Union,  '•'  Gould  &  Curry  Mill." 

'  Henry  de  Groot,  Pioneer  Mills  and  Mill-Men." 

^  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  16,  17,  1863,  "  Gould  &  Curry  Mill." 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISOEGANIZING  AGENCIES.  125 

injury  to  the  symmetry  of  the  original  design.  Nearly  $900,000^  were 
spent  in  building  and  furnishing  this  establishment  before  the  close  of 
the  year  1863,  up  to  which  time  it  had  reduced  only  4,812  tons  of  ore 
by  the  Veatch  process,  at  a  cost  of  f  38  per  ton  nominally,  but  actually  of 
at  least  $50  per  ton,  as  appeared  by  the  estimate  of  the  new  superintend- 
ent, Charles  Bonner,  in  1864.^  Two  hundred  and  twenty-five  men  were 
employed  in  these  works,  and  the  extravagant  outlay  for  the  wages  of  the 
laborers  and  the  maintenance  of  this  absilrd  establishment  was  defrayed 
by  consent  of  the  sanguine  Gould  &  Curry  stockholders,  who  acted  as  if 
their  bonanza  was  inexhaustible;  yet  the  mill  was  not  yet  fairly  completed 
when  its  entire  machinery  for  ore  reduction  was  discarded  by  Mr.  Bonner, 
who  found,  after  a  thorough  trial,  that  the  Veatch  process  did  not  save  the 
metal  in  the  ores  satisfactorily,  and  the  mill  wa,s  reconstructed  "  almost 
from  the  foundation"  at  a  cost  of  $560,893.^ 

It  is  evident  that  economy  was  not  a  popular  study  with  the  managers 
of  a  prosperous  mine  on  the  Comstock  lode  in  the  early  years  of  its  devel- 
opment at  least.  This  is  in  no  way  surprising.  The  mill  haciendas  were 
simply  in  keeping  with  the  prodigal  ideas  of  the  time.  Men  walked  the 
streets  of  Virginia  City  as  if  pacing  the  roof  of  a  fathomless  treasure 
house,  and  their  heads  were  constantly  in  the  clouds.  They  saw  a  net- 
work of  silver  beneath  their  feet  and  the  fine  strands  widening  into  solid 
wedges  of  ore.  The  eyes  of  the  soberest  minded  even  were  dazzled  by  the 
vision,  and  the  fancy  of  the  imaginative  ran  wild.  No  metaphor  can 
exaggerate  the  prevailing  delirium.  It  would  appear  that  a  silver  mist 
enveloped  the  slopes  of  the  Sun  Peak  and  men  moved  and  breathed  in  its 
unnatural  atmosphere.  Drunk  with  the  vapor,  all  prudent  considerations 
were  laughed  to  scorn.  Timid  suggestions  of  the  utility  of  thrift  and  the 
possibility  of  an  approaching  exhaustion  of  the  ore  deposits  were  unheeded 
or  unheard.  Every  large  stockholder  in  a  productive  mine  counted 
himself  a  nabob  and  scattered  his  money  broadcast  like  a  prince  bestowing 
largesses.     The  conception  of  the  Brazilian  spendthrift  in  Der  Seekadet  is 

'  1889,614.36. 

'  Annual  Reports  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  December  16,  1861 ;  December  15, 1862 ; 
December  21,  1863 ;  December  19,  1864. 

=  Fifth  Annual  Report  of  Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company,  1864,  pp.  15,  19. 


126  HISTORY  OF  THE  OOMSTOCK  LODE. 

scarcely  a  burlesque  of  the  Washoe  production.  One  fits  his  doors  with 
handles  of  solid  silver  and  buys  a  library  like  a  ledge,  by  the  foot; 
another  fills  his  water-tank  with  champagne  to  enliven  the  guests  at  a 
wedding.^  Before  the  end  of  the  year  1861  eighty-six  companies,  with  an 
aggregate  capital  stock  of  $61,500,000,  were  organized  to  work  the  mines 
of  the  Comstock  and  outlying  districts,^  and  this  number  was  largely 
increased  in  the  years  immediately  following.  Looking  backward  through 
an  interval  of  twenty  years  men  may  wonder  and  smile  at  the  delusion. 
It  was  diiferent  at  the  time.  In  the  unknown  there  is  an  almost  infinite 
range  of  possibility,  and  who  could  then  oppose  the  confident  faith  of  the 
optimists  except  with  unsupported  doubts.  The  mines  showed  no  signs 
of  exhaustion,  but  on  the  contrary,  every  stroke  of  the  pick  revealed  new 
treasures.  Judged  by  the  developments  of  the  day,  the  mines  bade  fair 
to  realize  the  sanguine  anticipations  of  their  owners.  The  nabobs  in 
fancy  might  yet  be  nabobs  in  fact. 

To  measure  the  prodigal  wastefulness  by  strict  lines  of  necessary 
expenditure  drawn  in  accordance  with  the  economies  of  business  conduct 
in  older  States  is  scarcely  charitable.  Galifornian  pioneers  who  had  lived 
for  years  in  fields  where  fortunes  were  made  and  lost  in  a  single  summer, 
and  in  which  by  a  stroke  of  a  pick  the  poor  miner  of  to-day  became  the 
wealthy  capitalist  of  to-morrow,  could  hardly  be  expected  to  appreciate  the 
need  of  thrift,  for  their  experience  had  made  them  inveterate  gamblers,  and 
they  counted  on  a  fresh  turn  of  the  wheel  to  retrieve  ill-luck  and  not  upon 
a  reserve  fund  in  store.  To  such  men  the  natural  economies  of  pru- 
dent business  management  appeared  parsimonious.  To  insist  upon  rigid 
accuracy  in  accounts  and  to  stop  tightly  petty  leaks  were  thought  unbe- 
coming in  owners  of  bonanzas.  Freehanded  as  private  citizens  and  in 
their  public  capacity,  they  scorned  to  place  in  the  balance  niggardly  esti- 
mates of  profit  and  loss,  but  delighted  in  displaying  the  resources  of 
the  new  district,  the  wealth  and  liberality  of  the  companies  with  which 
they  were  connected,  and  the  personal  dignity  of  their  positions  by  lavish 
expenditures  in  constructing  works  and  offices.     The  display  was  in  part 

'  W.  N.  C.  Maxwell,  Superintendent  New  Idria  Mine,  California,  formerly  Superintendent  Overman  Mine, 
Gold  Hill,  Nevada ;  Jerome  B.  Stillson,  Correspondent  New  York  World,  Letter  dated  July  3,  1865. 
°  Comstock  Papers,  No.  19;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  March  3,  1877. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  127 

natural  and  in  accord  with  the  prodigal  temper  of  the  time,  and  partly 
exaggerated,  it  may  be,  in  order  to  assure  the  minds  of  shareholders  of 
the  unprecedented  value  of  their  stock  and  to  dazzle  and  impress  possible 
investors,  for  a  plausible  outward  show  of  prosperity  is  worth  as  much  to 
a  mine  as  +o  an  insurance  office.  Marble  fronts,  plate-glass  windows,  glit- 
tering signs,  and  obese  porters  have  a  recognized  value  above  their  intrinsic 
cost,  as  Dickens  and  Daudet  have  cleverly  instanced,  and  it  is  certain  that 
terraces  and  fountains  and  painted  mills,  and  costly  pigs  and  high-mettled 
horses  could  be  made  to  serve  a  similar  purpose.  It  is  probable,  however, 
that  in  the  particular  instance  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  mill  the  expendi- 
tures were  the  natural  expression  of  the  liberal  nature  and  fancy  of  the 
superintendent,  and  not  a  deliberate  advertisement  to  enhance  the  value 
of  the  stock  of  the  company. 

The  extravagance  of  the  managers  was  unchecked,  if  not  directly 
encouraged,  by  the  stockholders  in  the  several  companies.  In  spite  of  the 
expenses  and  the  waste  the  dividends  of  the  productive  mines  were  large 
and  frequent,  and  the  fountains  of  money  appeared  to  be  unfailing.  The 
shareholders  spent  their  monthly  quotas,  well  pleased,  and  did  not  call 
for  increased  profits  through  a  reduction  of  expenses,  but  through  an 
augmented  production  of  bullion.  The  president  of  the  Gould  &  Curry 
Mining  Company  received  daily  calls  from  the  jovial  stockholders  in  his 
office  in  San  Francisco.  They  rarely  examined  the  expense  accounts  and 
cared  little  about  the  methods  of  extracting  and  milling  the  ore.  The 
idea  of  extracting  only  so  much  as  could  be  carefully  and  economically 
reduced  in  the  mill  of  the  company  appeared  to  them  preposterous,  and  if 
the  dividends  could  be  temporarily  doubled  they  did  not  care  how  large  a 
proportion  of  profits  was  absorbed  by  custom  mills  or  how  much  metal 
was  lost  by  over-rapid  and  careless  reduction.  "  Oh,  snake  it  out,"  was 
the  ordinary  exhortation  to  the  president,^  and  the  pressure  at  San  Fran- 
cisco was  communicated  to  the  superintendents  at  the  mine.  Urged  by 
this  demand,  they  used  every  endeavor  to  increase  the  production.  Forty- 
eight  thousand  seven  hundred  and  forty-three  tons  of  ore  were  "  snaked 

'Alpbeus  Bull,  President  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1864-1872. 


128  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

out "  in  1863,  and  64,433  tons  in  1864.  Six-sevenths  of  this  amount,  or 
97,763  tons,  were  reduced  in  custom  mills  during  these  years  at  an  average 
cost  of  fully  $24^  per  ton,  precisely  twice  the  necessary  expenses  of  reduc- 
tion by  an  economical  pan  process.  ( Vide  returns  of  working  cost  in 
Gould  &  Curry  mill  November,  1864,  "less  than  $12  per  ton;'"*  and 
official  statement  of  cost  of  reducing  31,792i  tons  in  1865=$12.93  per  ton.) 
Thus  at  least  $1,000,000  profit  was  lost  to  the  stockholders  by  their 
greedy  haste,  without  reckoning  the  amount  which  would  have  been  saved 
by  carefully  working  the  ores  in  well-conducted  mills  belonging  to  the 
company.  The  increased  yield  by  this  method  would  have  been  fully 
$200,000,  or  a  difference  of  $2  per  ton,  as  was  shown  by  the  returns  from 
the  third-class  ores  reduced  in  1865  by  the  corporation  and  custom  mills.* 

Ton8. 

Third  class  ores  reduced  at  the  Gould  &  Curry  mill .  31,  792J 

Third  class  ores  reduced  at  custom  mills 13,  716J 

Average  yield  of  third-class  ores,  Gould  &  Curry  mill,  per  ton $43.  67 

At  custom  mills,  per  ton $41.  60 

Yet  the  ore  was  so  rich,  yielding  an  average  return  of  $80.44  per  ton 
in  1863  and  $73.48  per  ton  in  1864,  that  in  spite  of  these  drawbacks 
dividends  amounting  to  $2,908,800  were  declared  during  these  two  years.* 
As  the  mine  had  thus  paid  in  so  short  a  time  considerably  more  than  the 
par  value  of  its  capital  stock  (4,800  shares  at  $500)  and  more  than  fifteen 
times  the  amount  actually  invested  by  the  stockholders,  assessments  1,  2, 
3,  and  4,*  aggregating  $187,200,^  its  owners  did  not  trouble  themselves 
about  the  comparatively  unimpor-tant  item  of  current  expenditures.  They 
scarcely  noticed  that  the  expenses  of  the  company  were  $5,940,297.86,'  or 
more  than  twice  the  amount  of  profit  declared  in  dividends  and  more  than 
two-thirds  of  the  receipts  from  all  sources,  $8,809,271,28.     But  this  extra- 

'  Annual  Eeports,  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1863-'64-'65. 

i* Fifth  Annual  Report  of  Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company,  p.  15. 

=  Sixth  Annual  Report  Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company,  p.  24. 

■•Annual  Reports  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1863, 1864. 

'  Cost  of  the  purchase  from  original  locators  being  insignificant. 

°  Unpublished  Annual  Reports  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1860-'61. 

'Annual  Reports,  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1863-'64. 


CONSTRUCTIVE  AND  DISORGANIZING  AGENCIES.  129 

ordinary  outlay  was  not  wholly  chargeable  to  the  mining  and  milling 
accounts,  as  the  expenses  incurred  in  contesting  adverse  claims  to  the 
mine  were  very  considerable.  No  less  than  fifteen  law-suits  were  brought 
against  the  company  during  the  years  1863-64,  and  six  suits  were  insti- 
tuted in  addition  by  the  company  as  plaintiff.^  During  the  year  1864  the 
cost  of  this  litigation  to  the  company  was  $135,747.13/  and  though  this 
sum  was  apparently  large,  yet  the  company  in  comparing  their  accounts 
with  those  of  the  other  leading  mines  on  the  lode  considered  themselves 
fortunate.  The  record  of  the  extraordinary  litigation  of  which  these 
twenty -one  suits  form  a  small  part  is  one  of  the  most  curious  and 
instructive  chapters  in  the  history  of  mining  industry  in  America. 

'  District  Court  Eecords. 

•Gould  &  Curvy  Silver  Mining  Company,  Annual  Report,  1864. 


9   H  0 


CHAPTER    VIII. 

INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION. 

The  contestants  in  the  early  mining-claim  suits  had  been  unequally 
matched.  Even  if  the  wealthy  companies  holding  mines  on  the  Gomstock 
Lode  could  not  win  their  cause  in  the  courts,  they  could  frequently  effect 
a  compromise  or  purchase  at  small  cost  comparatively,  as  the  cheapest 
method  of  settlement.  Still,  it  was  often  the  case  that  no  amicable  set- 
tlement could  be  concluded  on  reasonable  terms,  and  rival  holders  were 
therefore  constrained  to  submit  their  claims  to  the  decision  of  a  jury. 
The  first  locators  on  supposed  parallel  ledges  would  have  been  unable  to 
carry  on  a  war  of  litigation  successfully,  but  their  rights  were  gradually 
transferred  in  many  instances  to  organized  companies,  who  had  sufficient 
funds  to  contest  the  single-ledge  theory  or  the  identity  of  any  two  neighbor- 
ing ledges.  Sometimes  the  expenses  of  the  suits  were  defrayed,  in  part 
or  wholly,  by  the  ore  product  of  the  contested  claims,  but  usually  they 
were  met  by  the  levy  of  assessments.  The  very  perfection  of  company 
organization  which  contributed  largely  to  the  persistent  development  of 
unproductive  claims  aided  also  to  support  and  prolong  the  war  in  the 
courts.  By  the  issue  of  printed  certificates  of  stock  the  former  cumbrous 
method  of  transferring  shares  in  a  mine  by  formal  legal  conveyances  was 
abolished  and  fees  were  no  longer  paid  to  recorders  and  notaries  public, 
who  had  hitherto  reaped  a  rich  harvest  from  the  speculative  mania.^  Such 
certificates  were  readily  sold  or  exchanged,  and  stock-brokers  at  once  took 
the  place  of  the  mining-claim  brokers  who  negotiated  the  sale  of  "  feet" 
upon  commission.  Thirty-seven  of  these  pioneer  stock-brokers  soon 
organized  for  mutual  convenience  as  the  San  Francisco  Stock  and 
Exchange  Board,  September  1,  1862."     This  noteworthy  board  was  the 

'  San  Francisco  Daily  Stock  Report,  September  27,  1879. 
-  San  Francisco  Daily  Stock  Report,  December  22,  1879. 

(131) 


132  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

precursor  of  a  number  of  mining-stock  exchanges  which  bprung  up  later  in 
San  Francisco  and  elsewhere ;  but  it  has  always  been  first  on  the  Pacific 
coast  in  importance  and  prestige  as  well  as  in  origin.  Through  the  medium 
of  this  and  other  exchanges  shares  in  any  mine  owned  by  a  stock  company 
could  be  readily  bought.  Fighting  claims,  so  called,  were  sold  almost  as 
readily  as  productive  mines,  either  because  the  claim  title  was  thought  to 
be  sound  or  for  the  sake  of  exacting  black-mail,  and  assessments  were  freely 
paid  to  maintain  alleged  rights  in  the  courts,  for  the  tax  was  not  burden- 
some at  first,  owing  to  the  subdivision  of  the  stocks  among  numerous 
holders. 

Upon  the  opening  of  the  First  District  Court  by  Judge  Gordon  N.  Mott, 
in  February,  1862,^  the  multitude  of  suits  which  had  been  accumulating 
during  the  past  twelve  months  were  eagerly  pressed  for  trial.  Every  claim 
of  any  value  in  the  district  was  in  litigation ;  the  single-ledge  theory  was 
passionately  combated,  rights  of  rival  locators  were  hotly  asserted,  and  the 
confusion  was  worse  confounded  by  the  vagueness  of  the  notices  of  loca- 
tion and  the  lack  of  trustworthy  records.  Trespasses,  fraud,  and  perjury 
were  the  natural  outcome  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  mining  regulations 
and  the  laxity  with  which  they  were  enforced. 

"  The  United  States  Territorial  Court,"  wrote  a  trusted  correspondent 
of  the  San  Francisco  Bulletin  (July  14,  1862),  "finds  all  things  disar- 
ranged. The  court  tried  its  hand  in  a  leading  suit  between  the  Sacra- 
mento and  Sierra  Nevada  companies.  The  jury  found  a  verdict,  and  the 
court  set  it  aside.  We  shall  never  outgrow  this  perpetual  litigation  in 
mining  matters  until  the  courts  here  shall  rule  that  all  indefinite,  floating 
claims  and  locations  are  worthless  in  a  contest  with  claims  and  locations 
which  are  well  defined  and  made  in  accordance  with  the  letter  and  spirit 
of  our  mining  laws.  *  *  *  *  Hundreds  of  the  recorded  claims  are 
so  ambiguous  and  indefinite  that  they  will  not  bear  examination  in  this 
light  for  a  moment."  Hence  arises  "a  perpetual  uncertainty  in  titles 
until  it  has  become  a  by -word  that,  if  you  find  anything  worth  having, 
some  one  will  ring  in  with  a  suit  to  dispossess  or  levy  black-mail." 

The  absurd  facility  with  which  a  fighting  claim  could  be  trumped  up 

'  First  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  I,  p.  22. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  133 

was  clearly  shown  in  the  suits  brought  by  the  Grosche  Gold  and  Silver 
Mining  Company  against  the  Gould  &  Curry  and  the  Ophir  mining  com- 
panies in  the  Twelfth  District  Court  of  California.  Whether  the  Grosh 
brothers  ever  made  a  location  on  the  side  of  Mt.  Davidson  is  immaterial. 
It  is  certain  that  they  developed  no  ledge  and  that  all  their  record  notices 
were  lost.'  To  found  a  claim  to  3,750  feet  on  the  Comstock  ledge  upon 
their  vague  discoveries  was  simply  preposterous;  yet  the  Grosche  Gold 
and  Silver  Mining  Company  was  incorporMed  in  1863  with  a  nominal 
capital  of  |5,000,000;  afterward  increased  to  $10,000,000,  in  order  to 
maintain  this  claim,  which  embraced  the  richest  portion  of  the  ledge  so 
far  as  developed,  including  the  sections  held  by  the  Gould  &  Curry,  Ophir 
and  Mexican  companies,"  and  well-known  citizens  of  San  Francisco  con- 
sented to  serve  as  trustees  or  directors.*  The  poetical  editor  of  the 
Territorial  Enterprise  might  fitly  present  this  claim  in  a  revised  version 
of  well-known  nursery  rhymes,  but  the  Gould  &  Curry  stockholders  did 
not  see  the  humor  of  it — 

The  Ophir  on  the  Comstock  The  Savage  and  the  others 

Was  rich  as  bread  and  honey,  Had  machinery  all  complete, 

The  Gould  &  Curry  further  south  When  in  came  the  Grosches 

Was  raking  out  the  money.  And  nipped  all  our  feet. 

»          •          »          »  •     Sacramento  Union,  Sept.  2,  1863. 

The  total  expense  of  defending  the  valid  titles  against  this  attack  cannot 
be  ascertained,  but  the  Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company,  who  sustained 
the  brunt  of  the  litigation,  paid  out  nearly  thirteen  thousand  dollars 
($12,993.30)  on  this  account  during  the  year  ending  November  30,  1865.^ 
The  actions  were  dismissed  at  the  cost  of  the  plaintiff  March  9, 1865,"  but 
the  Gould  &  Curry  Company  had  been  forced  to  assemble  witnesses  from 
all  parts  of  the  country,  and  fortify  their  title  against  an  assault  which 
was  a  clear  case  of  black-mail.'' 

Little  prescience  was  required  to  foretell  the  issue  of  the  mining  suits 
in  the  district  when  the  editor  of  the  Territorial  Enterprise  confirmed  the 


>  Richard  M.  Bucke,  London,  Canada.  '  Sacramento  Union,  August  4,  1863. 

=  Letter  of  Grosche  Consolidated  Gold  and  Silver  Muiing  Company,  Sacramento  Union,  September  2,  1863 ; 
Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  September  28,  1863. 
<  Sacramento  Union,  March  3,  1864. 

s Sixth  Annual  Report  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1865,  p.  21. 
^San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  9,  1865. 
'Alpheus  Bull,  President  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  1864-1872. 


134  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

prediction  of  the  Bulletin  correspondent,  May  15,  1863:  "During  the 
present  and  coming  terms  of  the  district  court  in  this  city  twenty-five  or 
thirty  cases  of  the  greatest  importance,  involving  property  valued  to-day 
at  probably  not  less  than  $50,000,000,  will  be  reached.  In  three  cases  out 
of  five  the  juries  will  fail  to  agree,  and  the  remaining  two  will  be  re-heard 
or  appealed  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  Territory  and  from  that  tribunal 
to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  there  to  remain  subject  to  the 
assessments  of  a  coming  generation.  In  the  meantime  the  mines  in  dis- 
pute will  be  worked  imperfectly  and  without  system,  and  every  branch  of 
industry  in  the  Territory  must  feel  the  effects  of  this  interminable  liti- 
gation." 

The  cloud  of  uncertainty  which  rested  on  these  trials  grew  blacker 
and  more  heavy  from  month  to  month.  Witnesses  were  manufactured 
by  wholesale,  and  testimony  to  suit  the  requirements  of  a  case  was  bought 
and  sold  with  scarcely  a  pretense  of  secrecy.  No  facts  were  so  clear  and 
well  established  that  they  could  not  be  controverted  by  a  troop  of  hired 
liars,  and  the  trials  became  conflicts,  in  which  witnesses  were  pitted  against 
each  other  on  the  ground  of  numbers  rather  than  of  competence  or  char- 
acter, for  a  hundred  asseverations  of  ignorant,  prejudiced,  and  corrupt  men 
were  relied  upon  to  outweigh  the  careful  reports  of  trained  observers.  In 
the  excitement  of  the  contest  each  claimant  believed  his  opponent  unscru- 
pulous, and  under  the  plea  of  self-protection  was  tempted  to  resort  to  any 
method  of  defense.  "  We  had  to  fight  fire  with  fire,"  said  a  leading  lawyer 
of  the  Californian  bar,  and  the  metaphor  needs  no  exponent.  Wealthy 
Californians  who  had  invested  fortunes  in  these  mining  claims  saw  the 
imminent  peril  of  their  savings  with  a  dread  which  obliterated  considera- 
tions of  abstract  morality.  Some  contented  their  consciences  with  taking 
no  active  part  in  the  struggle  except  furnishing  the  sinews  of  war,  and 
closed  their  eyes  and  ears  to  the  unpleasant  sights  and  sounds  beyond 
the  Sierras.  Every  well-meaning  man  washed  his  hands  of  the  stain  as 
far  as  this  was  in  his  power,  and  eagerly  shook  off  the  burden  of  responsi- 
bility upon  less  fastidious  shoulders,  for  agents  could  always  be  found  to 
carry  out  a  plan  scarce  hinted  at  by  their  employers  with  a  ready  com- 
prehension which  did  credit  to  their  intelligence.     If  a  stake  which  never 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  135 

existed  was  a  necessary  link  in  the  chain  of  evidence,  that  stake  would  be 
created  out  of  thin  air ;  if  a  barren  strip  of  porphyry  or  a  body  of  paying 
ore  was  required,  porphyry  or  ore  would  be  discovered  in  quantities  and 
position  to  suit  the  demand. 

Generally  no  instruction  was  requisite.  An  important  witness  sum- 
moned from  a  neighboring  State  would  agree  to  come  if  allowed  several 
thousand  dollars  for  his  valuable  time  and  incidental  expenses,  and  once  on 
the  ground,  after  a  brief  survey  of  the  points  in  dispute,  he  would  proceed 
to  earn  his  wages  by  swearing  voluntarily  and  positively  to  what  he  con- 
ceived would  best  serve  the  interest  of  his  employer — but  if  drilling  was 
needed  it  was  never  lacking.  There  were  instructors  on  the  ground  who 
could  take  a  witness  through  adrift  or  cross-cut  and  make  him  see  clearly 
a  seam  of  ore  or  a  mass  of  barren  rock  along  the  same  wall  under  the 
eye-opening  influences  of  liquor  and  a  per  diem  allowance.  Some  wit- 
nesses would  require  more  than  others,  but  every  man  had  his  price,  unless 
he  valued  himself  too  highly.  If  one  side  summoned  a  long  array  of  wit- 
nesses to  attest  a  fact,  the  other  side  met  the  challenge  by  ranging  a  still 
greater  number  in  line  against  them.  If  twenty-eight  witnesses  testified 
in  favor  of  the  Union  Company,  for  example,  fifty-seven  would  and  did 
appear  for  the  Yellow  Jacket  Company,  and  the  number  of  witnesses  sub- 
poenaed was  largely  in  excess  of  those  actually  called  to  the  stand.' 

The  same  corrupt  influences  were  brought  to  bear  more  secretly  and 
less  frequently  perhaps  upon  the  juries  impaneled.  In  a  district  where 
everybody  speculated  in  mining  claims  it  was  practically  impossible  to 
obtain  an  unprejudiced  jury,  but  the  bias  was  intentionally  increased  in 
many  instances  by  direct  bribing.  A  discreet  observer  wrote  with  simple 
irony  to  the  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise  in  1865  (February  16th) ,  to 
inquire  "Whether  the  following  transactions  would  disqualify  a  gentleman 
from  serving  as  a  juror  in  future:  1.  Throwing  out  of  the  court-house 
window  a  paper  on  which  was  written  'See  me  with  |1,000;  I  will  then 
tell  you  to-morrow  morning  how  the  thing  will  go,  and  we  can  make 
money.'  2.  Taking  the  wrapper  from  a  cigar  and  having  replaced  it  with 
a  note  on  which  my  terms  were  written,  leaving  the  inclosed  cigar  where 

'October  12,  1863;  District  Court  Mluutes,  Book  3,  pp.  92,  105,  109;  William  M.  Stewart. 


136  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

my  friend  could  get  it.  3.  Finding  a  note  under  the  lining  of  mj  hat 
offering  me  '$5,000  provided  you  go  for  us,'  but  giving  my  verdict  only  to 
be  fooled  by  the  company."  The  inquirer  fortified  his  assumed  position  by 
quoting  from  Johnson's  Life  of  Addison  the  saying:  "It  is  not  necessary 
to  refuse  benefit  from  a  bad  man  when  the  acceptance  implies  no  appro- 
bation of  the  crime."  The  occurrences  mentioned  were  notorious  and 
illustrate  the  cruder  Washoe  methods  of  obtaining  a  favorable  verdict. 
The  public  confidence  in  jurors  as  Avell  as  witnesses  was  sorely  shaken. 
Even  the  integrity  of  the  presiding  judges  did  not  escape  suspicion.  Dis- 
graceful rumors  were  current  assailing  the  honor  of  members  of  the  highest 
territorial  judiciary.     The  atmosphere  of  distrust  was  all-pervading.^ 

Under  these  circumstances,  therefore,  it  is  not  surprising  that  pos- 
session was  accounted  the  surest  confirmation  of  title  and  that  the  control 
of  disputed  claims  was  often  determined  by  force.  The  Keystone  Com- 
pany drove  away  the  miners  of  the  Peerless  Company,  pitched  their 
windlass  and  buckets  down  their  shaft,  and  filled  it  up  to  the  surface 
with  rocks  and  earth.^  The  workmen  of  the  Grass  Valley  Company  were 
suddenly  assailed  through  a  drift  cut  as  a  counter  mine  by  the  Bajazette 
and  Golden  Era  Company,  and  forced  to  fly  to  the  surface  (August  11, 
1863).''  The  Uncle  Sam  Company  "hustled  the  Centerville  knights  off 
their  ground"  (February  24,  1864)  and  filled  up  the  hole  they  had  dug.* 
Yellow  Jacket  miners  cut  a  drift  into  the  Gentry  Company's  shaft  (April 
9,  1864),  built  a  fire  in  it  and  smoked  out  the  rival  party .^  Resolved  not 
to  be  ousted,  the  expelled  miners  rolled  down  rocks  and  dirt  into  their 
shaft  until  it  was  filled  above  the  opening  made  by  the  hostile  drift  and 
began  work  a  second  time.  The  Yellow  Jacket  Company  followed  up  their 
attack,  opened  the  shaft  again  (April  22,  1864)  and  built  another  fire. 
Their  rivals  resolved  to  fight  fire  with  fire,  and  threw  down  quantities  of 
inflammable  rubbish  which  soon  sent  up  a  dense  black  smoke.  The 
Gentry  shaft  Avas  closed  at  the  surface  and  the  smoke  and  vapors  found 

1 "  Chicanery  won  more  suits  than  eloquence  and  learning,  and  bribery  and  corruption  more  than  solid  merit. 
At  that  day  (1863)  the  practice  of  the  law  had  to  some  extent  degenerated  into  the  practice  of  villaiay ; "  Nevada 
Reports  (Helm),  No.  4,  p.  16;  Address  of  E.  M.  Clarke,  Attorney  General,  State  of  Nevada,  May  13,  1867,  upon 
death  of  Cornelius  M.  Brosnan,  Justice  of  Supreme  Court,  State  of  Nevada. 

2  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  22,  1863.  ^  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  12,  1863. 

<  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  25,  1884.  =  Gold  Hill  News,  April  23,  1864. 


rNTEEMINABLE  LITIGATION.  137 

their  only  A'ent  through  the  Yellow  Jacket  drift,  driving  out  the  miners. 
The  war  was  kept  up  for  days  "with  all  sorts  of  stinking  smudges."  An 
incautious  Gentry  miner  was  once  nearly  smothered,  and  the  wind  blew 
the  strong  odors  to  the  neighboring  houses  with  disgusting  effect. 

"  Regular  campaigns  are  carried  on  where  two  companies  are  working 
close  to  each  other  in  disputed  ground.  Though  neither  company  can 
see  what  the  other  is  doing  they  can  give  shrewd  guesses.  With  ear 
applied  to  the  wall  of  his  own  drift  the  sagacious  miner  contrives  to 
study  out  the  whereabouts  of  his  rival  and  the  direction  in  which  he  is 
moving.  Perhaps  the  miner  finds  that  they  are  advancing  in  a  line  to 
intercept  him.  He  then  strains  every  nerve  to  get  so  far  ahead  that  if 
they  continue  their  course  they  must  come  into  the  drift  behind  him.  To 
avoid  this  they  give  up  the  chase  and  turn  on  their  proper  course.  Then 
the  pursued  become  pursuers  in  turn,  and  start  a  drift  to  head  off  their 
enemies.  Sooner  or  later  the  works  cut  into  each  other."  ^  So  the  Baltic 
Company  invaded  the  Caledonian  lines,  but  were  straightway  smoked  out 
by  their  rivals,  April  26,  1864,^^  and  the  Gould  &  Curry  miners  broke 
down  the  barricade  erected  by  the  Seneca  men^  and  cut  their  windlass  and 
ropes  to  pieces. 

But  these  contests  were  of  minor  importance  compared  with  the 
contention  between  the  Ophir  and  Burning  Moscow  companies.  The 
Lucky  Company,  on  April  19, 1860,  had  recorded  the  following  location:* 

Virginia  City,  U.  T.  April  19,  '60. 

Burning  Mosca  Ledge  Lucky  Co 

We  the  undersigned  claim  (2400)  twenty  four  hundred  feet  of  this  Quartz  Ledge 
with  all  its  dips  angles  and  spurs  rimning .  North  (1200)  feet  and  south  (1200)  feet  to 
corisponding  notices  and  stakes  said  claims  are  situated  about  60  sixty  rods  west  of  Virginia 
City  and  lying  between  the  Centrail  and  Virginia  Ledges  and  nming  north  and  south 
paralel  with  the  same. 

WM.  BICKERSTAFF 
THOS  CATER  and  ten  others. 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  April  27,  1864. 

»I6id.,  April  27,  1864. 

3J6irf.,  July  6,  1864. 

'Virginia  Mining  District  Records,  Book  E,  p.  101. 


138  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  west  side  of  the  ledge  claimed  hy  this  company  was  found 
by  survey  to  lie  about  200  feet  below  the  croppings  and  line  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Ledge,  and  the  east  side  was  alleged  to  be  distinct  from  the  lode 
owned  by  the  Ophir  Company.^  The  name  of  the  association  was  soon 
changed  to  the  dazzling  sobriquet  of  Burning  Moscow,  by  incorporation 
as  a  stock  company,  with  a  nominal  capital  of  $480,000,  represented  by 
4,800  shares  of  |100  each ;  but  the  original  title  was  justified  on  the 
26th  of  August,  1862,  when  telegrams  from  the  mine  received  in  San 
Francisco  brought  the  shares  of  an  obscure  company,  never  before  quoted 
on  the  stock-exchange  list,  to  the  front  at  once.  The  sales  during  the 
next  three  days  illustrate  excellently  the  instability  of  the  early  market. 
On  the  26th  of  August^  the  first  140  shares  offered  were  bought  in  at  $50 
per  foot;  then  68  shares  were  sold  at  $75  per  foot;  then  100  shares  at 
$100  per  foot.  This  steady  advance  and  the  inquiry  for  the  stock  warned 
the  early  sellers,  and  the  purchasers  of  the  next  block  of  shares,  40  in 
number,  paid  for  them  at  the  rate  of  $230  per  foot ;  160  shares,  the  next 
sale,  brought  $250  per  foot,  and  the  climax  was  reached  by  the  sale  of  40 
shares  at  $275  per  foot,  August  27th.  On  the  following  day  the  bubble 
broke.  Everybody  wanted  to  sell  and  nobody  to  buy.  The  only  sale 
recorded  during  the  remainder  of  the  week  ending  August  30th  was  of  100 
shares  at  $50  per  foot,  and  during  the  subsequent  week  the  stock  fell  still 
lower,  the  final  sales  being  made  at  $40  per  foot.  At  the  close  of  the  month 
it  had  rallied  somewhat,  but  the  levying  of  an  assessment  of  $2  per  share 
broke  the  market  again  for  a  time,  and  the  uncertain  issue  of  a  pending 
suit  with  the  Madison  Company,  a  neighboring  claimant,  made  buyers 
cautious.''  The  demand  for  the  stock  was  light  and  fluctuations  corre- 
spondingly trifling  until  the  middle  of  February,  1863,  when  well-informed 
speculators  began  to  buy  in  the  stock  quietly.  Four  hundred  and  thirty- 
four  shares  were  sold  during  the  week  ending  February  21, 1863,  at  prices 
ranging  from  $75  to  $100  per  foot,  and  405  more  during  the  following 
week  at  a  slight  advance,  which  was  followed  by  a  corresponding  decline 
on  receipt  of  the  news  that  the  jury  in  the  suit  with  the  Madison  Com- 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulleiin,  January  28,  1861 ;  Virginia  City  Correspondent,  January  22,  1861. 
^Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  August,  1862. 
^  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  September,  1862. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  139 

pany  could  not  agree  on  a  verdict.'  But  a  few  days  later  telegraphic 
advices  were  received  that  a  bonanza  had  been  struck  equal  to  that  of  the 
Ophir  Company,  and  3,792  shares,  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  entire 
stock  of  the  mine,  changed  hands  during  the  five  weeks  ending  April 
4,  1863.^ 

The  ledge  where  the  ore-body  Avas  found  was  said  to  be  twenty-three 
feet  in  width,  with  smooth  and  regular  walls  covered  with  clay,  and  distinct 
from  the  ledge  of  the  Ophir  Company  in  every  respect  except  value.  This 
was,  of  course,  denied  by  that  company,  whose  counsel  had  already  brought 
suit  against  the  Burning  Moscow  (March  16,  1863)^  to  recover  possession 
of  the  disputed  ground.  To  establish  their  case  cross-cuts  were  at  once 
begun  by  the  Ophir  miners,  and  on  the  14th  of  May,  1863,  they  succeeded 
in  cutting  into  the  Burning  Moscow  works.*  They  were  repulsed  by  the 
rival  miners,  but  on  application  to  Judge  Mott,  the  counsel  for  the  Ophir 
Company  succeeded  in  obtaining  an  order  restraining  the  Moscow  Com- 
pany from  further  work  in  their  mine  until  the  conclusion  of  the  argu- 
ments in  the  application  for  a  permanent  injunction.  The  stock  of  the 
Moscow  Company  fell  on  receipt  of  this  news  one-third  in  value  (from 
$155  per  foot  to  |104),  and  was  brought  still  lower  by  the  news  of  a  dis- 
agreement of  the  jury,  who  stood  six  to  six  in  the  (second)  trial  of  their 
suit  with  the  Madison  Company.'  Holders  of  stock  were  very  glum  and 
their  temper  was  little  improved  by  the  news  that  the  judge  had  consented 
to  modify  his  order  so  far  as  to  allow  their  company  to  prospect  and  tim- 
ber their  mine,  but  not  to  remove  any  ore. 

The  decision  of  the  application  for  a  permanent  injunction  was 
delayed  from  month  to  month.  The  shares  fluctuated  in  value  for  a  few 
weeks,  but  were  virtually  shelved  or  sold  in  small  quantities  at  low  prices" 
until  the  month  of  September,  1863,  when  it  became  known  to  a  limited 
circle  that  Judge  Mott  was  on  the  point  of  resigning  and  that  his  probable 
successor  was  a  Nevada  lawyer  who  was  more  favorably  disposed  to  the 
"many  ledge"  theory. 

'  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  February  21, 28,  1863.  2  Ibid.,  March  7— April  4,  1863, 

3  District  Court  Records.  *  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  May  16,  1863. 

^  Sanborn's  Weekly  Circular,  May  23, 1863.  ^  Sanborn's  Weekly  Circular,  June — September,  1863. 


140  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Upon  this  encouraging  report  the  stock  came  into  active  demand 
again/  and  4,318  shares,  nearly  the  whole  stock  of  the  mine,  was  sold  in 
five  weeks  at  prices  ranging  as  high  as  $355  per  foot.^  The  Ophir  Com- 
pany endeavored  to  check  this  "boom"  by  a  second  assault  upon  the 
works  of  the  Burning  Moscow  mine,  October  23,  1863;  but  after  several 
attacks  and  repulses  the  superintendent  of  the  Burning  Moscow  mine, 
Philip  Deidesheimer,  entered  the  breach  with  a  warrant,  accompanied  by 
two  deputy  sheriffs,  who  arrested  eighteen  of  the  attacking  party,  includ- 
ing the  superintendent  and  foreman,  on  the  charge  of  riotous  conduct. 
The  prisoners  were  bound  over  to  keep  the  peace  and  then  released  upon 
bail,  but  the  indignation  of  the  Ophir  Company  was  at  fever  heat.^  Yet 
they  were  apparently  powerless,  and  could  only  view  with  wrath  and  dis- 
gust the  stock  of  their  rival  rising  persistently  until  the  advance  culmi- 
nated, during  the  first  week  in  November,  1863,  on  receipt  of  the  news 
that  Judge  Mott's  successor,  James  A.  North,  had  granted  a  temporary 
injunction  restraining  them  from  working  within  the  lines  claimed  by  the 
Moscow  Company.  One  thousand  two  hundred  and  forty  shares,  more 
than  one-fourth  of  the  total  number,  were  sold  in  open  board  at  prices 
ranging  from  $290  to  $362  in  the  course  of  this  week,  and  the  demand 
was  strengthened  by  the  refusal  of  the  judge  to  modify  his  restraining 
order.* 

It  was  now  the  turn  of  the  Ophir  Company  to  become  despondent. 
Their  stock  fell  during  the  week  ending  October  31, 1863,  from  $1,700  per 
foot  to  $1,430  on  the  announcement  that  their  suit  against  the  Moscow 
Company  had  been  dismissed,^  and  during  the  following  week  the  bears 
brought  the  stock  down  to  $1,160  per  foot  amid  extraordinary  excitement.® 
The  panic  appeared  most  ominous,  but  the  determined  upholders  of  the 
stock  rallied.  Opportune  telegrams  were  received  on  the  6th  of  November 
announcing  a  discovery  of  rich  ores  in  the  northern  portion  of  the  mine, 

'  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  September  5, 1863. 

«  Jbid.,  October  3,  10,  17,  24,  31,  1863. 

3  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  24,  1863 ;   PhUip  Deidesheimer. 

■•  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  November  7,  1863. 

6  Ibid.,  October  31,  1863. 

^Ibid.,  November  7,  1863. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  141 

and  the  stock  was  carried  up  to  $1,650  per  foot.  On  the  very  day  of  the 
dismissal  of  their  suit  with  the  Moscow  Company  they  began  a  new  suit 
in  another  district  of  the  Territory  at  Esmeralda  (October  27,  1863),  and 
maintained  their  losing  cause  with  indomitable  pertinacity.^ 

The  two  great  rivals  were  prepared  to  meet  each  other  on  equal  terms, 
having  freed  themselves,  in  great  measure,  from  the  attacks  of  petty 
assailants  by  compromises  on  the  basis  of  purchase  or  consolidation. 
The  Ophir  Company  had  obtained  the  Middle  Lead  by  purchasing  the 
title  of  McCall  and  others,^  and  part  of  the  Virginia  Ledge  as  well  by  a 
characteristic  bargain  with  Finney,  the  Washoe  Rip  Van  Winkle. 

Finney's  location  was  the  first  on  the  slope  of  Mount  Davidson  beyond 
question,  and  in  default  of  any  binding  code  of  mining  regulations  his 
title  was  unimpeached.  After  the  discovery  of  the  Comstock  Lode  he 
found  no  difficulty  in  disposing  of  his  ledge  in  small  assignments  to 
different  purchasers,  and  on  September  3,  1860,  he  and  his  partner,  John 
H.  Berry,  transferred  to  the  Ophir  Company  for  $7,500  two  hundred  and 
five  feet,  "  their  entire  remaining  interest  in  the  ledge."  ^  From  the  deed 
given  by  William  R.  Garrison,  December  8,  1862,  it  would  appear  that 
Finney  and  his  partner  failed  to  recollect  that  they  had  already  sold  or 
given  away  504  feet  3  inches  of  their  original  600  feet,  and  that  they  were 
selling  to  the  Ophir  Company  in  1860  one  hundred  and  nine  feet  3  inches 
more  than  they  possessed  at  that  time.*  Still,  in  a  community  where 
mining  claims  were  transferred  like  plugs  of  tobacco,  such  forgetfulness 
is  not  surprising  and  does  not  prove  intentional  dishonesty.  In  order  to 
avoid  a  possible  cloud  upon  their  title,  the  Ophir  Company  demanded 
before  closing  this  purchase  that  the  original  notice  of  location  should  be 
transferred  to  them.^  Finney  said  that  he  had  preserved  it,  but  was  too 
drunk  or  too  cunning  to  explain  intelligently  where  it  was  to  be  found. 
The  Ophir  Company  determined  to  bring  him  to  his  senses  by  a  stratagem, 
and  he  was  accordingly  induced  to  enter  a  tunnel  belonging  to  the  com- 

'  First  District  Court  Records,  Nevada  Territory,  Book  C,  p.  259. 

2  William  M.  Stewart;  Suit  of  Ophir  Company  vs.  McCall  et  al,  dismissed  at  cost  of  plaintifiF,  May  23,1863; 
District  Court  Minutes,  Book  I,  p.  362. 

=Storey  County  Records,  Book  D,  p.  626.  ■'Storey  County  Records,  Book  F,  pp.  547,  548. 

^William  M.  Stewart;  Isaac  E.  James. 


142  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

pany,  on  some  plausible  pretext,  and  an  iron  gate  at  its  mouth  was  closed 
behind  him.  On  the  following  morning  the  captive  was  sufficiently  sober 
to  understand  what  was  wanted  of  him,  and  though  grumbling  at  the  ill 
usage  which  he  had  received  he  consented  to  guide  the  superintendent  of 
the  Ophir  mine,  John  H.  Atchison,  and  Isaac  E.  James  to  the  spot  where 
he  had  concealed  his  notice  on  the  22d  of  February,  1858.  He  found  the 
cache  without  difficulty,  lifted  off  the  fragments  of  rock,  and  drew  out  a 
strip  of  yellow  paper  covered  with  dust  and  moths'  eggs,  but  the  most 
precious  note  on  the  Comstock,  for  upon  it  was  scrawled  in  still  legible 
characters  a  claim  to  the  main  ledge  on  the  slope  of  the  Sun  Peak  with 
all  its  dips,  spurs,  and  angles.^ 

The  Ophir  Company  were  willing  to  buy  the  section  held  by  Finney 
in  September,  1860,  but  they  did  not  appreciate  its  full  value,  as  they  made 
no  effort  apparently  to  secure  the  remainder  of  the  ledge.  It  is  true  that 
the  claim  was  producing  no  ore  worth  extracting,  but  it  was  noticed  by 
several  shrewd  observers  that  the  ledge  dipped  east  from  its  very  crop- 
pings  and  was  undoubtedly  the  main  lead  of  the  slope,  as  far  as  it  extended. 
As  soon  as  this  fact  was  clearly  shown  by  actual  exploration,  Mr.  William 
H.  Garrison  bought  up  quietly  the  control  of  the  ledge  by  purchasing  the 
stock  of  the  Old  Virginia  Ledge  Company,  and  notified  the  Ophir  Company 
in  October,  1862,  that  he  intended  to  contest  their  title  to  the  Comstock 
Lode.  A  panic  in  the  stock  market  at  once  ensued,  and  Ophir  stock 
fell  from  $3,000  per  foot  to  $1,800,  a  decline  of  more  than  one-third  in 
value  in  one  week.^  The  counsel  of  the  Ophir  Company  saw  the  weak- 
ness of  their  position  and  advised  a  compromise.^  Mr.  Garrison  at  first 
demanded  a  very  large  sum,  but  was  ultimately  persuaded  to  accept 
$100,000  offered  by  the  Ophir  stockholders  (November  26, 1862"),  in  return 
for  which  he  conveyed  to  the  Ophir  Company  504  feet  3  inches  of  the 
Virginia  claim  and  ledge,  as  well  as  560  feet  mining  ground  claim  and 
quartz  lode,  known  as  the  Virginia  Lead  of  the  Virginia  Company,  a  claim 
located  by  Jacob  Whitbeck  and  others,  February  13,  1862.^  Exactly  in 
what  place  this  last-mentioned  company  found  room  to  stick  their  stakes 


'  Isaac  E.  James.  *  Sanborn's  Weekly  Circular,  October  18,  1862. 

'William  M.  Stewart.  ■•Sanborn's  Weekly  Circular,  November  29,  1862. 

^Storey  County  Records,  Book  F,  pp.  547, 548. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  143 

and  insert  their  "Lead"  does  not  appear,  but  their  notice  was  recorded  in 
due  form,  and  it  was  probably  cheaper  to  buy  them  off  than  to  fight  them 
in  the  courts. 

Thus  the  Middle  Lead,  the  Old  Virginia  Ledge,  the  Virginia  Lead,  and 
the  Ophir  or  Comstock  Lode  throughout  a  section  of  1,400  feet  were 
possessed  by  the  same  company,  and  yet  within  a  tract  less  than  five  hun- 
dred feet  in  width,  by  surface  measurement,  it  was  asserted  that  four  other 
ledges  existed.^  It  has  already  been  narrated  how,  while  the  Burning 
Moscow,  Middle  Lead,  and  Old  Virginia  Ledge  companies  were  harrying 
the  Ophir  Company,  the  Madison  Company  was  struggling  with  the  Burning 
Moscow  for  a  share  of  the  spoils.  The  appeal  to  litigation  to  decide  their 
respective  claims  had  twice  resulted  in  a  disagreement  of  the  jury,  and 
the  dead-lock  appeared  hopeless.  Moreover,  the  Harrison  and  La  Crosse 
companies  were  spurring  the  Moscow  as  well,  which  might  have  disposed 
of  them  singly,  but  had  need  of  all  its  resources  for  the  encounter  with 
its  most  formidable  rival.  Accordingly,  on  the  18th  of  November,  1863, 
the  minor  wars  were  ended  by  compromise  and  the  consolidation  of  the 
four  companies  under  the  Burning  Moscow  charter.  The  capital  stock  of 
the  Burning  Moscow  Company  was  increased  from  $480,000  to  $3,000,000^ 
and  its  hands  were  freed  for  the  impending  battle. 

To  anticipate  the  trial  of  a  suit  for  ejectment  brought  in  the  district 
court  December  1, 1863,  arguments  and  testimony  in  support  and  rebuttal 
of  a  plea  for  a  permanent  injunction  were  submitted  to  Judge  North.  The 
decision  of  the  judge,  in  denying  the  injunction  prayed  for  by  the  Ophir 
Company,  shows  a  curious  conflict  of  testimony  and  presents  clearly  the 
defects  of  the  existing  laws  in  regard  to  ledge  location  and  ownership. 
"The  defendant,"  he  said,  "claims  the  ownership  of  these  ledges  lying 
between  the  Virginia  and  the  Middle  Lead,  to  wit :  The  Moscow,  the  Har- 
rison, and  the  La  Crosse,  and  claims  to  be  mining  on  its  own  ground  and 
not  on  the  ground  of  plaintiff.  The  cjuestion  at  issue  is  whether  this 
ledge  is  the  Middle  Lead  or  not.     A  large  number  of  respectable  affiants 

'Ledge  of  La  Crosse  Company,  located  December  9,  1859,  Book  I,  V.  M.  E.,  p.  96;  Ledge  of  Harrison 
Company— Geller  Ledge,  located  June  17,  1860,  V.  M.  R.,  Book  E,  p.  377 ;  Ledge  of  Madison  G.  &  S.  M. 
Co.,  located  July  3,  1862,  V.  M.  R.,  Book  K,  p.  521 ;  Ledge  of  Burning  Moscow  Company,  V.  M.  E.,  Book  E, 
p.  101. 

'  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  November  21,  1863. 


144  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

state  that  the  ledge  seen  (in  possession  of  the  Burning  Moscow  Company) 
is  the  old  Middle  Tunnel  Lead  and  is  closely  traced  through  the  incline 
(marked  15  in  James' ^  map)  to  the  chamber  in  which  defendant  is  at  work. 
A  still  greater  number  state  upon  their  oath  that  the  said  incline  leaves 
said  ledge  entirely  and  runs  some  55  feet  through  porphyry  to  the  said 
chamber,  and  there  are  two  ledges  at  this  point,  separated  by  at  least  50 
feet  of  porphyry.  *  *  *  It  is  difficult  to  see  how  these  two  bodies  of 
quartz,  separated  at  one  point  by  50  or  55  feet  of  porphyry,  as  appears  both 
from  weight  of  evidence  and  from  my  personal  examination,  and  at  another 
point  by  90  feet  of  the  same  material,  can  be  one  and  the  same  ledge.  In 
view  of  the  facts,  at  least,  I  cannot  hold  that  they  are  proven  to  be  one, 
and  without  this  fact  being  proven  the  plaintiff  falls  far  short  of  proving 
title  to  the  ground  on  which  defendant's  works  are  situated.  At  the  depth 
where  this  controversy  arises  the  evidence  on  both  sides  shows  that  there 
are  several  and  distinct  ledges.  If  at  a  greater  depth  there  shall  be  found 
conclusive  evidence  that  all  these  are  blended  in  one,  when  that  depth  is 
reached  and  that  evidence  is  adduced,  then  will  be  the  J)roper  time  to 
determine  what  ledges  run  out  and  what  continue. 

*  :•:  *  *  *  *  * 

"The  application  for  injunction  is  denied."^    December  28,  1863. 

This  decision  was  a  staggering  blow  against  the  maintenance  of  the 
single  ledge  theory  in  the  courts.  William  M.  Stewart  was  aware  of  the 
difficulties  of  the  contest  and  the  extraordinary  expenses  which  must  be 
incurred.*  He  was  employed  as  counsel  by  the  principal  companies  on 
the  line  of  the  Comstock  Ledge  as  distinguished  at  that  time  (1862-1864) 
from  the  parallel  ledges  on  either  side,  and  fully  realized  the  bitterness 
and  uncertain  issue  of  the  pending  litigation.  His  fees  as  attorney  were 
very  large,  but  he  was  willing  to  resign  his  position  as  counsel  if  a  bril- 
liant speculative  combination  could  be  effected. 

His  plan  was  a  daring  but  sagacious  one,  as  subsequent  developments 
proved.  He  was  convinced  that  the  true  dip  of  the  main  ledge  of  the 
district  was  toward  the  east  and  knew  that  its  angle  of  inclination  would 

'Isaac  E.  James. 

°  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  December  29,  1863;  Sanborn's  Weetly  Circular,  January  2,  1863. 

'  William  M.  Stewart. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  145 

soon  carry  it  far  outside  of  the  surface  lines  claimed  by  the  Ophir,  Gould  & 
Curry,  Chollar,  and  other  mines  on  the  lode.  He  proposed,  therefore,  to  the 
trustees  of  the  Chollar  Company,  a  body  of  wealthy  and  enterprising  men,  to 
quietly  sell  out  their  interests  in  the  Chollar  and  other  claims  on  the  Com- 
stock  Ledge,  while  he,  in  turn,  would  withdraw  from  his  position  as  attor- 
ney for  these  companies.  Meanwhile  the  combination  would  buy  up  the 
supposed  wild-cat  claims  lying  outside  and  east  of  the  claims  on  the  main 
lode.  The  Chollar  directors  already  held  the  controlling  interest  in  the 
ledge  claimed  by  the  Grass  Valley  Company,  and  other  claims  in  like 
position  could  have  been  cheaply  purchased.  These  purchases  once 
effected,  it  was  his  plan  to  induce  the  different  companies  on  the  lode  to 
put  an  end  to  otherwise  certain  litigation  by  defining  their  surface  lines 
or  the  boundaries  of  their  claims  accurately  and  finally.  He  would  not 
conceal  his  own  opinion  that  the  ground  to  the  east  was  valuable,  but  few 
persons  agreed  with  him,  and  he  was  confident  that  the  Comstock  Ledge 
companies  would  readily  agree  to  mark  their  eastern  boundary  line,  if 
they  were  allowed  to  include  the  broad  tract  lying  between  the  Comstock 
and  Grass  Valley  ledge  croppings,  which  he  was  willing  to  concede  to 
them.  When  the  boundary  lines  were  determined  it  was  to  be  stipulated 
that  planes  should  be  drawn  perpendicular  to  these  lines,  extending  indefi- 
nitely downward  and  that  the  mining  operations  of  all  companies  should 
be  confined  within  the  limits  of  the  planes  bounding  their  respective 
claims.  All  pending  suits  should  be  adjusted  as  rapidly  as  possible,  and 
the  main  cause  of  litigation  having  been  removed,  he  foresaw  that  the 
mining  industry  of  the  district  would  expand  with  natural  vigor.'  Now 
this  was  substantially  a  relinquishment  of  the  cherished  but  litigious 
principle  which  allowed  a  locator  to  follow  the  dips  of  his  ledge  indefi- 
nitely, and  a  substitution  of  the  often-decried  Spanish  or  Mexican  system 
of  allotment;  yet  it  was  clearly  the  most  expedient  course  to  pursue. 

Unfortunately,  the  trustees  of  the  Chollar  Company  could  not  be 
persuaded  to  adopt  Mr.  Stewart's  views,  and  he  was  reluctantly  obliged  to 
abandon  his  project  and  continue  the  fight.  If  he  was  not  successful  as 
a  peace-maker  he  had  no  reason  to  complain  of  his  fortune  as  a  contest- 

'  William  M.  Stewart. 
10   H   C 


146  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

ant.  The  leading  lawyers  of  the  Pacific  sea-board  were  employed  in  the 
various  suits  and  the  Californian  courts  were,  for  the  time,  deserted,  so  to 
speak,  for  the  more  profitable  field  of  practice  in  the  new  Territory.  The 
fees  paid  by  the  wealthier  companies  to  their  attorneys  would  have  daz- 
zled Hortensius  and  Scaevola,  and  were  far  in  excess  of  those  earned  by 
the  most  competent  counsel  in  the  Atlantic  States.  Benjamin  R.  Curtis, 
who  resigned  his  seat  on  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  Bench  to 
become  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the  Massachusetts  bar,  received  an 
average  return  of  $40,000  annually  for  his  legal  services  during  the  seven- 
teen years  1857-1874,^  while  the  professional  income  of  Mr.  Stewart  dur- 
ing the  years  of  fiercest  litigation  at  Washoe  was  $200,000  annually.  The 
Belcher  Mining  Company  repaid  his  services  with  100  feet  of  their  claim, 
which  he  sold  for  $100,000,  and  the  Yellow  Jacket  Company  gave  him 
$30,000  as  a  single  fee.  The  rewards  were  princely,  but  the  labor  was 
more  exacting  than  the  task  of  a  slave.  The  vigor  and  earnestness  with 
which  he  carried  on  the  legal  war  are  undisputed.  Once  enlisted  as 
counsel  in  a  case,  he  made  the  cause  of  his  clients  his  own.  He  saw  no 
foundation  of  justice  in  any  claim  of  an  opponent  and  left  no  stone 
unturned  to  achieve  success.  His  known  determination  to  win  at  any  cost, 
and  the  belief  that  he  would  match  his  adversary  with  any  weapons 
which  the  latter  might  employ  exposed  his  course  to  sharp,  if  not  merited, 
criticism ;  but  he  defied  his  critics  to  prove  their  assertions  in  the  courts.^ 
It  must  be  admitted  that  in  offering  this  challenge  he  ran  little  risk,  for 
the  direct  complication  of  so  shrewd  a  lawyer  in  unwarrantable  practices 
could  scarcely  be  proven.  It  is  equally  certain  that  the  Washoe  bar,  at 
that  time,  was  not  a  nursery  for  tender  consciences,  and  if  he  fought  fire 
with  fire  he  had  not  a  few  imitators  and  assistants. 

All  might  have  been  content  to  equal  him  in  industry  and  devotion 
to  the  cause  of  his  clients.  In  preparation  for  his  cases  he  worked  day 
and  night,  seemingly  incapable  of  fatigue.  His  mastery  of  the  details  of 
a  case  was  so  complete  and  his  memory  so  accurate  that  during  the 
progress  of  a  suit  he  took  no  notes,  but  was  able  to  refer  in  citation  to 

'Memoir  of  Benjamin  Robbing  Curtis,  vol.   I,  p. 268. 
=  William  M.  Stewart,  March  15,  IbSO. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  147 

testimony  of  the  most  complex  and  contradictory  character  with  extra- 
ordinary correctness.  During  the  course  of  one  trial,  if  several  suits  in 
which  he  was  engaged  were  to  be  brought  up  in  succession,  it  was  his 
practice  to  prepare  for  them  in  turn  so  fully,  with  the  assistance  of  his 
associate  counsel,  that  he  rarely  had  occasion  to  request  a  postponement, 
but  was  ready  to  proceed  to  trial  at  a  moment's  notice. 

In  addressing  a  jury  he  endeavored  to  make  his  statement  of  the  case 
as  clear,  straightforward,  and  simple  as  possible,  avoiding  carefully  any 
semblance  of  legal  quibble  or  trick.  He  placed  himself  on  their  level  of 
comprehension,  spoke  to  them  as  man  to  man,  appealed  to  their  crude 
sense  of  justice  and  fairness,  and  strove  to  convey  the  idea  that  his  clients 
were  entitled  to  a  verdict  in  equity  even  more  than  by  law.  His  opponents 
protested  that  "he  w^as  endowed  by  nature  with  a  faculty  of  imposing  the 
sublimest  absurdities  upon  juries  as  pure  and  spotless  truth,'"'  but  the 
success  of  his  method  was  grumblingly  admired.  Though  abstaining 
from  legal  finesse,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  resort  to  any  device  of  rhetoric 
which  could  serve  his  end.  The  broadest  sarcasm  and  ridicule  were 
effective  with  a  jury  in  a  mining  camp  whom  subtle  wit,  however  brilliant, 
would  have  failed  to  impress. 

So  in  the  notable  case  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mining  Company  vs.  the 
Union  Mining  Company,^  the  determining  cause  of  the  verdict,  as  Mr. 
Stewart  believes,  was  not  the  plea  which  he  was  able  to  make  upon  the 
merits  of  the  case,  but  the  discomfiture  of  a  rival  attorney,  Mr.  Frank 
Hereford,  by  a  ridiculous  comparison.^  Mr.  Hereford,  who  represented 
the  Union  Company,  had  only  recently  arrived  in  the  Territory,  and  it 
occurred  to  Stewart  to  annoy  him,  if  possible,  and  make  the  jury  laugh,  by 
alluding  to  his  natural  inexperience  in  conducting  jury  trials  in  Nevada. 
He  compared  Hereford  accordingly,  with  absurd  gravity  and  minuteness  of 
detail,  to  a  young  broncho  horse,  untrained  and  fresh  from  the  plains, 
brought  up  into  the  cold,  thin  air  of  the  mountain  city,  and  his  arguments 
were  likened  to  the  first  efforts  of  the  pony  who  pants  and  gasps  in  the 
new  atmosphere.     When  the  new-comer  became  acclimated  and  had  recov- 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  5,  1863. 

=  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  :i,  pp.  92.  105, 109. 

'William  M.  Stewart. 


14S  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

ered  his  wind,  so  to  speak,  he  might  be  of  some  service,  but  till  then 
Stewart  hinted  provokingly  that  he  was  unfit  for  rivalry  with  a  trained 
old  war-horse  like  himself.  The  badinage  was  not  charged  with  a  delicate 
wit,  but  it  was  effective  in  accomplishing  the  twofold  aim  of  provoking  his 
rival  and  setting  the  rough  jurymen  in  a  roar  of  laughter.^  Hereford's 
attempted  retorts  were  skillfully  parried  and  his  able  presentation  of  the 
cause  of  his  clients  obtained  little  consideration.^ 

In  the  trial  of  another  suit  of  the  first  importance  a  different  temper 
was  manifested.  The  indignation  of  the  jury  and  spectators  was  artfully 
excited  by  the  bitter  denunciation  of  the  treachery  of  a  leading  witness 
until  their  passion  was  uncontrollable.  In  no  other  trial  on  the  Comstock 
was  such  a  flame  of  excitement  kindled  as  in  this,  the  suit  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mining  Company  vs.  the  American  Mining  Company.^ 

The  tract  claimed  under  the  location  made  by  the  Sierra  Nevada 
Company  had  been  seized  upon  by  opposing  claimants  until  the  ground 
was  honey-combed  with  prospect  holes.  Mr.  Stewart  was  attorney  for 
the  Sierra  Nevada  Company  in  1862-'63,  as  well  as  one  of  its  trustees,  and 
advised  that  suits  should  be  brought  against  all  locators  on  the  disputed 
ground  in  order  to  quiet  title,  knowing  that  many  of  the  cases  would  never 
be  contested  or  brought  to  trial,  and  that  judgment  by  default  would 
accordingly  be  obtained.  His  advice  was  taken,  and  a  complaint  was 
made  by  George  D.  Whitney,  president  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Company, 
setting  forth  the  facts  in  the  case  at  length  and  attesting  them  by  his 
affidavit  upon  oath,  as  well  as  by  the  affidavits  of  others.  The  result  was 
as  the  attorney  had  anticipated.  Judgment  was  confessed  by  some  of  the 
claimants,  but  others,  among  whom  was  the  American  Mining  Company, 
contested  the  Sierra  Nevada  title  and  forced  the  company  to  institute  suits 
for  ejectment.* 

As  the  time  set  for  the  trial  of  the  suit  against  the  American  Com- 
pany approached  (February  26,  1863)  Mr.  Stewart  found  to  his  surprise 
that  no  steps  were  taken  by  the  president  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Company 


'  Isaac  E.  James.  "  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  24,  1863. 

^  First  District  Court  Records,  Book  I,  pp.  331,  336,  338. 
"William  M.  Stewart 


INTEEMINABLE  LITIGATION.  149 

to  provide  for  the  necessary  initial  expenses.  Mr.  Whitney  had  so  far 
shown  himself  energetic  and  honorable  in  the  conduct  of  the  suits  to 
quiet  title,  and  his  present  course  appeared  inexplicable.  Stewart  wrote 
to  the  San  Francisco  office  of  the  company  but  received  no  satisfactory 
answer.  Finally,  only  three  days  were  left  before  the  day  of  trial,  and 
the  attorney,  suspecting  treachery,  determined  to  act  on  his  own  responsi- 
bility and  promptly.  He  wrote  to  the  trustees  informing  them  of  the 
singular  course  of  the  president  and  urging  that  one,  at  least,  should  set 
out  for  Virginia  City  immediately  to  conflrm  his  action ;  but  knowing  that 
no  one  could  arrive  in  time  to  be  of  any  service  in  the  preparation  for  the 
trial,  he  set  to  work  without  further  delay.  His  first  act  was  to  obtain 
the  "sinews  of  war,"  as  he  said,  from  a  reluctant  money-lender.  With 
f20,000  thus  procured  he  employed  surveyors  to  make  an  accurate  map 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  claim  and  sent  messengers  on  swift  horses  to  Car- 
son, Genoa,  and  all  the  valley  towns  for  miles  around  to  collect  witnesses. 
Before  the  three  days  had  expired  he  had  prepared  thoroughly  the  case 
for  his  clients,  mustered  a  formidable  array  of  witnesses,  and  was  able  to 
establish  a  plausible  case  on  affirmative  evidence  without  giving  a  clue  to 
the  course  which  he  proposed  to  take  in  rebuttal.  Mr.  Charles  H.  S. 
AVilliams,  who  was  accounted  the  ablest  lawyer  on  the  coast  in  the  trial 
of  nisiprius  suits,  had  been  engaged  to  conduct  the  case  for  the  American 
Company.  This  was  the  first  time  that  he  had  been  pitted  against  Mr. 
Stewart,  and  the  latter  was  disposed  to  make  the  contest  a  sharp  one,  as 
Mr.  Williams  had  alluded  somewhat  bitterly  to  him  in  the  course  of  a 
previous  trial,  the  Burning  Moscow  vs.  the  Madison  Company. 

On  the  night  before  the  trial,  February  25, 1863,  Mr.  Whitney  arrived 
on  the  stage  from  California,  and  he  had  hardly  entered  the  city  before 
Stewart  telegraphed  to  the  other  trustees  that  they  were  betrayed  and  that 
the  trial  could  not  be  postponed.  He  did  not  know  Whitney's  intention, 
but  suspected  the  truth,  as  was  afterward  ascertained,  that  the  inducement 
held  out  to  him  was  a  large  amount  of  stock  in  the  American  Company, 
which  Whitney  took  after  disposing  of  the  greater  part  of  his  interest  in 
the  Sierra  Nevada. 

The  trial  began  on  the  next  day  in  a  crowded  court-room.     Mr. 


150  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Stewart  made  out  a  prima  facie  case,  as  he  anticipated,  and  contented 
himself  at  first  with  a  concise  statement  of  tlie  facts,  hinting  at  the  singu- 
lar action  of  Whitney,  but  purposely  moderate  in  tone.  Mr.  Williams 
incautiously  replied,  committing  himself  more  fully  than  he  would  have 
spoken  upon  second  thought  in  defense  of  Whitney,  whom  he  proposed 
to  call  as  a  witness.  This  was  Stewart's  object,  and  when  it  fell  to  his 
turn  to  cross-examine  Whitney,  March  3,  1863,  he  contrived  to  obtain 
much  more  minute  and  positive  affirmations  than  had  been  elicited  in 
the  direct  examination.  Then  he  turned  sharply  on  the  witness  and 
produced  the  complaint  to  which  the  latter  had  sworn  six  months  before. 
He  went  over  this,  sentence  by  sentence,  showing  a  direct  conflict  of  testi- 
mony on  the  important  points.  "Did  you  swear  so  and  so,"  he  would 
ask,  "six  months  ago?"  Whitney  moved  uneasily  on  the  stand,  hesitated, 
stammered,  made  evasive  answers,  and  soon  became  utterly  confused. 
Stewart  pressed  him  more  hotly  than  ever  and  drove  him  fairly  to  the 
wall.  The  crowd  in  the  court-room  catching  the  purport  of  these  ringing 
questions  and  seeing  the  apparent  faithlessness,  became  passionately 
excited,  half  through  personal  interest  and  half  through  a  contagious 
sympathy.  The  trembling  witness  appealed  to  the  judge,  Hon.  Gordon  N. 
Mott,  but  the  judge  decided  that  the  questions  were  pertinent  and  must 
be  answered.  Surrounded  by  a  densely  packed  ring  of  threatening  faces 
and  assailed  implacably  by  his  inquisitor,  Whitney  suffered  a  keen  torture 
for  several  hours  on  the  stand.  At  last  he  was  permitted  to  retire,  but 
the  effect  which  the  shrewd  lawyer  had  aimed  to  produce  was  attained. 

In  summing  up  the  case  for  the  Sierra  Nevada  Company  he  had  the 
opportunity  for  which  he  had  been  waiting,  for  the  crowd  in  the  court-room 
were  already  strongly  moved  by  the  developments  in  the  case,  and  were 
prepared  for  the  passionate  invective  and  appeal  which  he  knew  how  to 
make.  He  painted  the  act  of  Whitney  in  the  darkest  colors  as  the  trick 
of  a  renegade,  false  to  his  duty,  false  to  his  friends,  false  to  his  honor. 
The  witness  had  sworn  to  a  tissue  of  lies  which  had  been  laid  bare  in  all 
their  blackness,  and  left  the  stand  branded  for  life  as  a  perjurer  who  had 
betrayed  his  trust.  Scarcely  less  bitter  was  the  attack  upon  the  defending 
counsel.     He  styled  the  introduction  of  Whitney  as  a  witness  an  unpar- 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  151 

donable  crime  which  was  a  burning  disgrace  to  the  conductors  of  the 
defense.  It  involved  Williams  as  a  guilty  associate  in  a  shameful  con- 
spiracy and  would  remain  an  enduring  stain  upon  the  profession  to  which 
he  belonged.^  The  jury  caught  the  passionate  glow  and  heat  of  the  speaker 
and  bent  forward  eagerly  to  listen.  The  spectators  muttered  sympathy 
and  crowded  closely  about  the  bar.  When  Stewart  spoke  his  last  fierce 
sentence  an  ominous  murmur  ran  through  the  court-room.  The  attempted 
defense  of  Mr.  Williams  was  ineffective.  The  jury  were  deaf  with  passion, 
and  left  their  seats  inflexibly  prejudiced  against  the  witness  Whitney  and 
the  case  of  the  American  Company.  They  did  not  waste  time  in  recon- 
ciling possible  differences.  One  man  alone  was  inclined  to  protest  against 
the  action  of  the  majority.  They  told  him  that  they  would  hang  him  if 
he  persisted,  and  having  a  well-grounded  faith  in  this  assurance  he  yielded 
instantly,  and  a  verdict  was  rendered  at  once  for  the  plaintiff,  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Company,  March  5,  1863.' 

Contests  like  these  could  not  long  be  maintained  without  exhausting 
even  the  plethoric  purses  of  Californian  millionaires.  The  legitimate 
costs  of  this  multitude  of  suits  were  enormous,  and  the  expenses  of  fight- 
ing fire  with  fire  were  insupportable.  The  legal  war  culminated  with  the 
remarkable  case  of  the  Chollar  Mining  Company  vs.  the  Potosi  Mining 
Company,  the  immediate  cause  of  the  resignation  of  the  whole  Territorial 
bench  and  a  contention  without  a  parallel  in  the  history  of  the  litigation 
of  mining  claims  in  its  duration,  fierceness,  and  cost. 

Even  in  May,  1862,  it  was  spoken  of  as  the  ''Jarndyce  vs.  Jarndyce" 
case,  and  yet  the  contest  was  in  its  infancy.^  In  December,  1861,  notice 
was  given  by  the  Chollar  Company  to  the  Potosi  Company  that  they 
Intended  to  bring  an  action  to  recover  possession  of  "  a  surface  claim 
about  1,400  feet  in  length  and  400  feet  in  width  (the  same  premises 
surveyed  by  James  P.  Stratton) ,  including  the  Comstock  lead  or  ledge, 
so-called,  with  all  the  dips,  angles,  spurs,  and  variations  thereof,  together 
with  all  the  quartz,  leads,  and  ledges  and  earths  containing  the  precious 
metals  within  said  described  boundaries."*    An  action  of  ejectment  was 

'  William  M.  Stewart.  =  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  I,  p.  338. 

2  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  June  3,  ISSi;  Virginia  City  Correspondent,  May  30,  1862. 
*  District  Court  Eecorda,  Judgment  Series  No.  96,  Law,  Book  D. 


152  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

accordingly  brought  January  17,  1862,  and  the  claim  of  the  Chollar  Com- 
pany was  supported  by  the  introduction  of  four  titles,  known  as  the  Webb, 
Kirby,  Chandler,  and  Beach  locations.^  The  Potosi  Company  denied  the 
infringement  of  any  rights  acquired  under  these  titles,  as  they  were  not 
working  in  surface  ground,  but  iu  a  well-defined  ledge  located  by  them  in 
accordance  with  the  district  laws. 

The  question  here  at  issue  was  of  manifest  importance.  Early 
locators  who  staked  out  surface  claims  had  no  knowledge  that  anything 
of  value  existed  within  their  boundary  planes  except  the  shallow  stratum 
of  sand  and  gravel  lying  upon  the  bed  rock.  This  they  could  wash  in 
their  rockers  or  reduce  in  the  simple  arrastras.  They  had  no  means  of 
crushing  the  bed  rock  and  no  idea  that  it  was  worth  developing.  But 
when  the  existence  of  silver  ledges  in  the  mountain  side  was  announced 
every  surface-claim  holder  maintained  his  right  to  all  ledges  whose  apices 
were  within  the  boundary  lines  of  his  location.  They  did  not  care  what 
the  fair  construction  of  their  original  claims  allowed  them,  and  wasted  no 
time  in  discussing  the  difference  betAveen  surface  and  ledge  locations. 
They  were  convinced  that  the  bed  rock  or  ledges  belonged  to  them  as  well 
as  the  surface  soil,  for  they  would  certainly  have  claimed  the  rock  in  the 
first  place  if  they  had  known  of  its  richness.  An  intention,  however 
vague  in  scope,  was  equivalent  to  an  action  in  their  minds,  and  they 
determined  that  others  should  view  the  matter  as  they  did.  Possession 
Avas  more  than  nine  points  of  the  law  in  a  mining  camp,  and  the  surface 
locators  generally  succeeded  in  holding  their  ground. 

The  equivocal  wording  of  their  claim-notices  was  of  marked  service 
to  them  when  their  rights  were  questioned.  Many  of  them  claimed 
"quartz  and  surface"  within  a  given  area,  and  held  that  they  meant 
ledges  by  the  word  quartz  and  not  merely  the  broken  and  decomposed 
rocks  of  the  surface  ground.  Some  used  the  term  wittingly  in  this  sense, 
no  doubt ;  to  others  again  it  was  a  mere  catchword,  repeated  parrot-like 
from  the  text  of  notices  which  they  had  seen.  Few  knew  enough  of  quartz 
mining  to  detect  or  develop  a  ledge,  and  fewer  still  intended  to  search  for 
one.     Above  all.  the  assertion  of  a  right  to  follow  the  dip  of  a  ledge  beyond 

'  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  .V,  p.  117 ;  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  6.  1864. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  153 

the  boundary  planes  of  a  claim  was  assuredly  an  after-thought,  first  main- 
tained when  ore  bodies  had  been  discovered  in  adjacent  claims  by  more 
enterprising  miners.  Often  such  discoveries  were  the  first  suggestion  to 
the  holders  of  surface  claims  that  ledges  existed  within  their  boundaries; 
yet  they  coolly  undertook  to  rob  their  informants  of  all  the  proceeds  of 
their  labor.  Such  an  attempt  contravened  common  law  and  common 
sense.  In  1858  it  would  have  been  laughed  at  as  preposterous  ;  but 
three  years  later  it  was  strenuously  made  by  means  of  lawsuits  and  shot- 
guns, for  then  the  right  of  the  original  locators  or  their  assigns  to  follow 
the  dip  of  ledges  was  expressly  recognized  by  the  district  laws.  The 
points  at  issue  were,  therefore,  (1)  whether  a  location  for  "quartz  and 
surface"  was  a  "ledge  location"'  within  the  meaning  of  the  law,  and  (2) 
whether  a  ledge  location  made  subsequent  to  such  surface  and  quartz 
location,  upon  the  discovery  of  a  ledge  outside  the  limits  of  the  location 
aforesaid,  entitles  the  locator  and  discoverer  to  follow  the  ledge  with  all 
its  dips  and  spurs  wherever  it  may  go,  even  if  it  should  run  into  the  lines 
of  the  surface  location.^  The  action  for  ejectment  brought  by  the  Chollar 
Company  against  the  Potosi  Company  would  obviously  tend  to  determine 
the  latter  point  by  settling  whether  the  Potosi  Company  had  a  right  to 
trace  their  ledge  within  the  lines  of  the  Chollar  Company  and  remove  ore 
from  within  those  lines. 

The  trial  of  this  action  in  the  district  court  lasted  for  more  than  a 
week,  exciting  general  interest.  The  presidents  of  all  the  leading  com- 
panies on  the  lode  were  present,  and  the  array  of  counsel  on  either  side 
was  unprecedented  in  Washoe  trials.  The  jury  announced.  May  29, 1862, 
that  they  stood  five  for  defendant  and  seven  for  plaintiff,  and  could  not 
possibly  come  to  an  agreement.^  They  were  accordingly  discharged  and 
a  new  trial  ordered,'  which  took  place  in  October  of  the  same  year,  and 
the  suit,  then  accounted  the  ''pons  asinorum"*  of  the  protracted  term  of 
court,  was  finally  decided  in  favor  of  the  Chollar  Company  October  20, 


'  ride  Request  of  Counsel  for  Potosi  Company  made  to  Judge  Mott  to  obtain  certain  instructions  to  jury ; 
Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  January  5,  1863. 

^  District  Court  Minutes,  Bools  I,  pp.  154-163. 

^  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  I,  p.  185. 

■•  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  October  23,  1862. 


154  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

1862.'  Thus  the  Potosi  Company  were  constrained  to  abandon  work  on 
their  ledge  within  the  boundary  planes  of  the  claims  owned  by  the  Chollar 
Company,  and  their  rival  possessed  the  fruit  of  their  labors. 

During  the  week  ending  October  11,  1862,  Chollar  and  Potosi  mining 
stocks  were  accounted  of  nearly  equal  value  in  the  San  Francisco  market, 
85  shares  of  Potosi  stock  selling  at  from  $145  to  $165,  while  20  shares 
of  Chollar  stock  were  sold  at  $140.^  Chollar  stock  rose  steadily  in  value 
during  the  trial  of  the  suit  for  some  reason,  587  shares  being  sold  during 
the  week  ending  October  18  at  from  $150  to  $220.^  No  sales  of  Potosi 
shares  were  reported  during  this  week,  sellers  and  buyers  being  alike 
timorous ;  but  on  the  announcement  of  the  result  of  the  trial  Potosi 
stock  was  thrown  on  the  market  at  any  sacrifice,  the  price  per  foot  drop- 
ping more  than  $100.  One  hundred  and  seventy-three  shares  were  sold 
during  the  week  ending  October  25,  1862,  at  from  $50  to  $60,  and  stock 
could  be  bought  on  the  last  day  at  a  further  decUne  of  $20  per  foot. 
Chollar  stock  bounded  upward  with  corresponding  rapidity,  250  shares 
selling  at  from  $290  to  $320  during  the  same  week.*  A  motion  for  a  new 
trial  was  overruled  (November  11,  1862)'*  and  an  appeal  taken,  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course,  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Territory,  where  the  decision 
of  Judge  Mott  was  sustained  by  a  judgment  rendered  in  March,  1863." 

Potosi  stock,  which  had  rallied  somewhat,  suffered  another  sharp 
decline,  but  the  managers  of  the  company  were  by  no  means  disposed  to 
give  up  the  contest.  A  shaft  was  sunk,  accordingly,  outside  the  eastern 
boundary  surface  line  of  the  Chollar  Company  and  a  deposit  of  rich  ore 
was  soon  reached.  The  contention  was  instantly  renewed,  and  cross- 
suits  were  instituted  by  both  companies.  Tha  managers  of  the  Potosi 
Company  believed  that  Judge  Gordon  N.  Mott  was  biased  in  favor  of  the 
claims  of  the  Chollar  Company,  and  as  the  chief  justice,  George  Turner,  was 
accounted  also  a  Chollar  partisan,  they  resolved  to  change  the  constitution 

'  First  Judicial  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  I,  pp.  201,256,278,  Judgment  Series,  No.  96. 

»  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  No.  31,  October  11, 1862. 

3  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  No.  32,  October  18, 1862. 

<  Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  No.  33,  October  25, 1862. 

'District  Court  Minutes,  Book  I,  p.  278. 

•Sanborn's  Weekly  StockCiroular,  March  21.  1863. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  I55 

of  the  bench  by  inducing  Judge  Mott  to  resign  and  obtaining  the  appoint- 
ment of  James  W.  North,  a  lawyer  who  was  known  to  liold  a  different 
opinion  as  to  the  rightfulness  of  their  claims.  How  this  plan  was  carried 
out  was  bluntly  stated  by  the  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  26, 
1864,  fully  indorsed  by  the  Gold  Hill  News  of  the  same  date,  and  substan- 
tially confirmed  by  a  decision  of  referees  in  a  libel  suit  instituted  Decem- 
ber 6,  1864:^  "We  assert  that  Judge  North's  place  on  the  bench  was 
bought  for  him.  The  price  paid  was  $25,000.  The  payee  was  Gordon  N. 
Mott.  The  person  paying  it  was  John  H.  Atchison,  in  behalf  of  the  Potosi 
Company.  We  believe  that  there  was  some  flimsy  pretext  of  railroad 
business  which  glossed  over  the  payment  of  the  money  to  Mott,  but  it  will 
not  be  pretended  that  the  object  of  paying  Mott  was  any  other  than  to  get 
North  on  the  Bench." 

There  is  no  evidence  that  Mr.  North  knew  of  the  payment  of  this 
money,  but  he  must  have  known  whose  influence  secured  his  place  on  the 
bench,  although  an  endeavor  was  made  to  keep  the  transaction  secret  lest 
the  Chollar  Company  should  take  alarm  and  oppose  the  candidate  of  their 
rival.  On  September  14, 1863,^  Mr.  North  received  a  telegram  from  Wash- 
ington officially  notifying  him  of  his  appointment  as  associate  justice,  and 
advising  him  that  his  commission  had  been  forwarded.  He  opened  court 
the  same  day,  pursuant  to  the  adjournment  made  by  Judge  Mott. 

The  Chollar  Company  had  lost  a  valuable  ally  and  became  at  once 
aggrieved  and  suspicious.  A  drift  from  their  ground  cut  into  the  deposit 
found  by  the  Potosi  Company,  and  injunctions  were  applied  for  by  both 
companies.  On  the  hearing  of  the  application  by  the  Potosi  Company  for 
a  preliminary  injunction  before  Judge  North,  affidavits  were  offered  by  the 
Chollar  Company,  defendants,  for  the  purpose  of  proving  their  rights 
under  the  Webb,  Kirby,  Beach,  and  Chandler  locations,  the  custom  of 
miners  in  the  location  of  claims,  the  position  and  development  of  their 
ledge,  and  also  to  show  what  was  litigated  in  the  suit  decided  in  October, 
1862.    The  Potosi  Company,  plaintiff,  objected  on  the  plea  that  the  ground 

'Washoe  Times,  October  21,  1865;  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  25,  1865;  "  Eeferees'  Decision  iu 
Full." 

''  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  15,  1863. 


156  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

in  controversy  was  litigated  in  the  former  action,  and  that  the  record  in 
that  action  was  a  bar  to  any  subsequent  action  or  proceeding  based  on 
the  old  titles.^ 

In  other  words,  the  Potosi  Company  claimed  that  a  boundary  plane 
separating  their  ledge  from  the  ground  belonging  to  their  rival  was  estab- 
lished by  the  decision  in  the  former  suit.  They  did  not  dispute  longer 
the  right  of  the  Chollar  Company  to  the  ledge  or  ledges  west  of  this 
boundary  plane,  but  they  maintained  their  own  clear  title  to  the  ore- 
deposit  or  ledge  discovered  by  them  east  of  this  plane.  They  averred 
that  this  ore-deposit  was  in  a  ledge  distinct  from  any  whose  apices  were 
within  the  Chollar  boundary  lines,  but  they  contended  that  even  if  the 
ore-deposit  was  in  a  continuation  of  a  ledge  owned  by  the  Chollar  Com- 
pany yet  this  company  had  no  title  to  it  based  on  the  Webb,  Kirby,  Beach, 
and  Chandler  locations.  These  locations  had  indeed  conveyed  all  the 
ledges  within  the  boundary  planes  of  the  Stratton  survey,  but  no  right  to 
follow  the  dip  of  such  ledges  outside  of  these  planes.  This  position,  as 
they  alleged,  was  established  by  the  verdict  in  the  former  trial,  as  no 
rights  could  be  maintained  other  than  those  expressly  conveyed.  In 
short,  under  surface  and  quartz  locations  only  the  ground  allowed  by  the 
common  law  could  be  legally  claimed,  and  the  provision  of  the  district 
mining  law  allowing  locators  to  follow  the  dip  of  their  ledges  was  inop- 
erative. 

After  considering  the  briefs  submitted,  Judge  North  granted  the 
preliminary  injunction  prayed  for  by  the  Potosi  Company  (February  19, 
1864),  and  the  Chollar  Company  were  directed  to  cease  work  on  the  ledge 
within  the  lines  claimed  by  the  Potosi  Company  until  the  11th  of  the  fol- 
lowing month,  on  which  day  they  were  called  upon  to  appear  through 
their  counsel  to  show  cause  why  they  should  not  be  permanently  enjoined 
from  working  within  these  boundaries.  The  Chollar  Company  gave  bonds 
as  a  warranty  of  obedience  to  the  order  of  the  court,  and  withdrew  their 
miners  sullenly  from  the  disputed  ground.^  The  trustees  of  this  company 
had  bought  up  the  controlling  interest  in  the  claim  of  the  Grass  Valley 
Company,  by  Mr.  Stewart's  advice,  but  in  spite  of  one  hundred  and  seventy 

'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  .3,  February  20,  1864. ) 


INTEEMINABLE  LITIGATION.  157 

affidavits  submitted  to  Judge  North,  he  had  denied  (December  14,  1863) 
the  injunction  asked  for  against  the  Potosi  Mining  Company  on  the  ground 
of  the  Grass  Valley  location  title,'  and  on  March  16,  1864,  he  refused 
permission  to  unite  the  suits  of  the  Ghollar  and  Grass  Valley  Companies 
against  the  Potosi  Company.^  The  only  result  of  this  purchase  was,  there- 
fore, to  place  the  Potosi  Company  in  the  centre  of  the  ground  claimed  by 
their  adversary,  which  they  were  proceeding  to  develop  with  irritating 
effect. 

On  the  31st  of  March,  1864,  Judge  North  rendered  a  final  decision  in 
the  suit  of  the  Potosi  vs.  Ghollar  Company,  to  the  effect  that  no  affidavits 
should  be  admitted  "to  show  locations  which  have  once  been  litigated 
between  the  parties  to  this  action,  or  to  show  the  customs  affecting  such 
locations,  or  to  show  what  was  litigated  in  the  former  suit,  or  to  deter- 
mine whether  the  former  suit  is  a  bar.''  ^  The  editor  of  the  Stock  Circular 
wrote  on  April  2,  1864,  that  this  decision  in  favor  of  the  Potosi  Company 
had  placed  their  title  beyond  question,  but  he  did  not"  realize  that  Washoe 
attorneys,  like  John  Paul  Jones,  did  not  know  when  they  were  beaten.* 

The  vital  importance  of  obtaining  the  reversal  of  this  decision  was 
day  by  day  more  painfully  realized  by  the  Ghollar  Company,  and  their 
rival,  the  Potosi  Company,  was  equally  alive  to  the  necessity  of  its  con- 
firmation by  the  court  of  appeal.  It  was  universally  understood  that 
Judge  Turner  was  in  favor  of  the  Ghollar  claim  and  Judge  North  equally 
determined  to  combat  it.  The  whole  strife  was  therefore  to  gain  over  the 
third  judge,  P.  B.  Locke,  and  the  fight  which  ensued  affords  an  unique 
picture  of  a  judicial  bench.^ 

The  appeal  from  Judge  North's  decision  was  argued  and  submitted  in 
the  Supreme  Court  April  28,  1864.  On  the  evening  of  the  day  when  the 
argument  was  closed  Judge  North  with  Judge  Locke  and  two  others  rode 

'  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  December  19,  1863. 

^Weekly  Stock  Circular,  March  26,  1834,  April  2,  1864;  First  Judicial  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  III, 
p.  191. 

3  First  .Judicial  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  III,  p.  206. 

■■Weekly  Stock  Circular,  April  2,  1864. 

s  Gold  Hill  News,  August  3,  1864,  Editorial ;  The  Chollar  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company,  plaintiffs  and 
appellants,  vs.  the  Potosi  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company,  defendants  and  respondents;  and  the  Potosi  Gold 
and  Silver  Mining  Company,  plaintiffs  and  respondents,  vs.  the  Chollar  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company,  de- 
fendants and  appellants ;  Records  and  Judgments  Supreme  Court,  Nevada  Territory,  Book  A,  p.  90. 


158  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

from  Carson  City  to  Lake  Tahoe,  14  miles  distant,  although  Judge  North 
had  left  the  bench  a  few  hours  before,  declaring  himself  too  ill  to  sit.  This 
singular  excursion  for  a  sick  man  so  startled  the  representatives  of  the 
Chollar  Company  that  William  Stewart,  Alexander  Baldwin,  and  two 
friends  at  once  procured  a  carriage  and  started  in  pursuit,  "  stating  that 
they  wanted  to  see  who  the  brokers  of  the  Potosi  were,  and,  if  possible, 
stop  negotiations."^  Soon  after  the  arrival  of  the  pursuers  and  pursued 
at  the  Glenbrook  House,  on  the  lake,  a  prominent  holder  of  Potosi  stock 
rode  up  to  the  hotel  with  a  companion  —  "  accidentally,  of  course  "  —  on 
their  way  to  San  Francisco,  but  appeared  somewhat  astonished,  it  is  said, 
to  find  the  company  so  "  badly  mixed,"  and  made  only  a  short  stay.^ 
After  their  departure  the  Chollar  representatives  took  possession  of  Judge 
Locke,  ordered  an  extravagant  supper  at  midnight,  and  kept  up  a  Washoe 
symposium  till  morning. 

By  an  uncommon  effort  of  will  Locke  took  his  seat  on  the  bench 
that  same  day,  while  the  Chollar  advocates  rejoiced  in  the  persuasion 
that  he  was  convinced  by  their  effective  reasoning.  The  court  ad- 
journed, and  on  the  next  day  Judge  Locke  went  to  Virginia  City  with  a 
Chollar  attorney,  Alexander  Baldwin.  On  his  arrival  he  told  Mr.  Baldwin 
that  he  should  lodge  at  the  International  Hotel,  but  changed  his  mind, 
apparently,  for  he  took  up  his  quarters  in  rooms  belonging  to  Judge 
North.  On  Sunday,  May  1st,  he  dined  with  Potosi  sympathizers  at  the 
office  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company,  and  the  confidence  of  the  Chollar 
party  was  changed  to  alarm.  Judge  North  returned  to  Virginia  City  on 
the  next  morning,  and,  after  an  interview  with  Judge  Locke,  opened  the 
session  of  the  district  court.  The  rumor  spread  during  the  day,  apparently 
from  an  authoritative  source,  that  Judge  Locke  had  been  gained  over  by 
the  "arguments"  of  the  Potosi  Company  and  would  decide  in  their  favor; 
but  the  Chollar  advocates  determined  not  to  give  up  the  fight,  and  went 
to  Judge  Locke's  chamber,  where  another  convivial  party  was  made  up, 
which  finally  adjourned  for  a  ride  to  Carson  City.  Judge  Locke,  with  the 
confidence  inspired  by  liquor,  insisted  on  driving,  and,  naturally,  upset  the 
carriage  over  a  high  bank,  breaking  it  to  pieces,  while  the  sober  horses 

'  William  M.  Stewart.  "  Gold  Hill  News,  August  3,  1864. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  I59 

ran  away.  Two  other  carriages  were  obtained  at  Silver  City  and  the 
party  started  again,  Locke  dividing  his  time  impartially,  it  is  said,  in 
"drinking,  quarreling  with  the  teamsters  on  the  road,  and  hugging  his 
companions."^  On  the  morning  after  his  arrival  at  Carson  he  took  his 
seat  on  the  bench  and  deliberated  with  his  associates  upon  the  important 
cases  laid  before  them.  Between  the  hours  of  12  m.  and  3.30  p.  m.  sixteen 
cases  were  decided,  every  one  of  which  was  affirmed.  No  opinion  in  the 
ChoUar-Potosi  case  was  filed  at  the  time,  but  there  was  an  impromptu 
celebration  that  night  at  Dorsey's  Mill,  three  miles  from  Carson,  by  well 
wishers  to  the  Potosi  cause.-  Immediately  afterward  George  D.  Roberts, 
an  agent  of  the  Grass  Valley  Company,  denounced  Judge  Locke  as  a  per- 
jured scoundrel,  having  previously  notified  him  of  his  intention  so  to  do.^ 
On  the  following  day,  May  5th,  Judge  North  filed  an  opinion,  with 
the  concurrence  of  Judge  Locke,  summing  up  briefly  the  history  of  the 
contest,  and  affirming  the  order  appealed  from  in  each  of  the  causes.  By 
this  decision  the  Chollar  Company  were  barred  from  introducing  in  the 
coming  trial  of  the  formal  suit  for  ejectment  any  evidence  of  property 
based  on  their  old  titles  of  location,  which  would  insure  the  defeat  of  their 
cause.  Even  then  the  indomitable  Chollar  advocates  did  not  despair,  but 
remained  in  close  communion  with  Judge  Locke  until  their  persistent 
representations  induced  him  to  file  an  addendum  to  his  decision  which 
permitted  them  to  fight  the  battle  over  again  from  its  opening  in  1861. 
This  addendum  is  a  legal  curiosity,  reading: 

It  is  unnecessary  to  express  any  opinion  as  to  the  merits  of  this  cause.     Both  parties 
may  be  heard  upon  the  trial  as  to  what  was  adjudicated  in  a  former  trial.  * 

P.  B.  LOCKE,  J. 

"Judge  Turner  thought  he  had  Locke  nailed,  and  to  clinch  him  writes 
and  files  the  following:"" 


» Gold  Hill  News,  August  4,  1864 ;  Editorial. 

2  William  M.  Stewart;  Gold  Hill  News,  August  4,  1864  ;  Editorial. 

^Virginia  Daily  Union,  May  11,  1864. 

■■Records  of  Nevada  Territory,  Book  A,  May  5,  1864. 

'Gold  Hill  News,  August  4,  1864;  Editorial. 


IQQ  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Opposing  the  whole  doctrine  in  the  former  opinion  I  concur  with  Justice  Locke  in 
the  views  expressed  in  the  latter  clause,  to  wit:  "That  it  is  unnecessary  to  express  any 
opinion  as  to  the  merits,"  etc.,  and  that  in  the  final  trial  before  the  court  and  jury  both 
parties  should  be  heard  in  evidence  as  to  what  premises  were  adjudicated  in  the  former 
trial,  these  or  others.^- 

GEORGE  TURNER,  C.  J. 

The  Potosi  battalion  rallied  on  the  day  after  this  addendum  was  filed, 
and  with  Judge  North  as  their  ally  succeeded  in  holding  a  long  confer- 
ence with  Judge  Locke,  while  the  supporters  of  the  Chollar  cause  tried 
in  vain  to  recover  control  of  him,  but  only  succeeded  so  far  as  to  prevent 
him  from  signing  a  "retraxit"  of  his  "addendum"  that  day.  He  was 
carried  off,  however,  in  the  evening  to  the  town  of  Washoe  by  the  Potosi 
Company,  and  after  a  week's  subjection  to  the  Potosi  "  arguments  "  he 
filed  the  following  order  with  the  clerk  of  the  Supreme  Court,  May  13, 
1864: 

You  are  directed  to  strike  from  the  files  in  your  office  my  addendum  or  qualification 
to  the  opinion  delivered  by  North,  Judge,  and  concurred  in  by  me.  Said  addendum  or 
qualification  is  hereby  revoked  by  me  and  rendered  null  and  void  and  to  be  of  no  legal 
effect.'' 

Given  under  my  hand  this  the  13th  day  of  May  A.  D.  1864. 

P.  B.  LOCKE. 

Whereupon  the  editor  of  the  Gold  Hill  News  remarked,  with  less 
elegance  than  truth,  "the  cake  of  the  Chollar  was  very  cold  dough,"  and 
added  pertinently,  "What  induced  Locke  to  write  that  addendum?  Cer- 
tainly no  re-examination  of  the  points,  for  the  senseless  jargon  of  that 
document  reveals  nothing  of  the  kind,  and  in  fact  it  is  well  known  that 
he  made  no  such  examination;  and  then  what  induced  him  to  sign  the 
retraxit?" 

This  travesty  of  justice  excited  general  indignation  against  the  con- 
duct of  the  judges  and  the  contesting  parties;  but  the  Chollar  advocates 
managed  skillfully  to  turn  the  gathering  storm  against  the  judges  alone. 
Mr.  Stewart  had  attacked  Judge  North  bitterly  in  January,  1864,  taking 
advantage  of  the  fact  that  the  judge  owned  an  interest  in  a  quartz- 
mill,  and  in  order  to  complete  it  for  service  had  borrowed  |15,000  in 

'  Records  of  Nevada  Territory,  Book  A.  ^  Records  Nevada  Territory,  Book  A,  May  13,  1864. 


ESTTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  161 

November,  1863,  of  William  E.  Barron,  a  large  holder  of  Potosi  stock.^  "A 
judge  cannot  be  useful  as  a  judge,"  said  Mr.  Stewart  in  a  public  meeting, 
January  16,  1864,  "he  cannot  be  an  officer  of  the  people  if  his  business 
is  in  such  a  condition  that  it  requires  him  to  place  himself  in  the  jaws  of 
the  lions — the  Barrons  and  the  Bells.  I  do  not  care  how  innocent  his 
motives  may  have  been.  I  submit  to  you  whether,  if  you  had  your  for- 
tunes and  your  hopes  in  life  pending  in  a  scale  before  a  judge  and  the 
opposite  party  had  a  mortgage  of  $15,000  hanging  over  that  judge,  you 
would  rest  easy  in  your  boots?  I  do  not  believe  now,  and  I  never  believed, 
that  there  is  a  man  living  who  can  fill  the  district  judgeship,  run  a  quartz- 
mill,  carry  a  debt  of  |60,000,  borrow  money  from  litigants,  get  rock  from 
mines  in  dispute,  and  remain  a  useful  judge.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  angel 
Gabriel  could  do  it."^  Judge  North  in  reply  stated  that  he  was  ignorant 
of  Barron's  interest  in  the  Potosi  claim  at  the  time  the  loan  was  obtained, 
and  maintained  that  his  ownership  of  a  quartz-mill  would  not  affect  his 
judicial  action;^  but  the  impression  created  by  this  apparent  indiscretion 
was  deepened  by  his  action  in  the  Chollar-Potosi  case,  and  by  the  plain 
charges  of  corruption  which  Mr.  Stewart  and  the  leading  district  journals 
did  not  hesitate  to  make  openly.* 

The  pressure  brought  to  bear  to  obtain  the  resignation  of  the  whole 
bench  was  irresistible.  By  public  meetings  and  in  the  columns  of  the 
district  press  they  were  imperatively  called  upon  to  resign:  "A  most 
potential  cause  of  the  present  depression  of  mining  industry,"  declared 
a  speaker,  addressing  a  great  assembly  of  striking  miners,  August  1, 1864, 
"is  the  deep  and  universal  distrust  of  our  judiciary.  It  is  a  fact,  flagrant 
and  notorious,  that  thousands  and  hundred  of  thousands  of  dollars  have 
been  expended  in  obtaining  corrupt  decisions  from  infamous  judges,"  etc.^ 
The  Territorial  Enterprise  published  a  petition  requesting  the  judges  to 


'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  17,  18,  1864. 

'Stenographic  Report  (Sumner  &  Cutter)  of  Speech  delivered  January  16,  1864;  Territorial  Enterprise, 
January  18,  1864. 

'  Territorial  Entei-prise,  January  19,  1864 ;  Stenographic  Report. 

< William  M.  Stewart;  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  24,  26,  August  3,  5,  1864;  Gold  Hill  News,  July 
25,  26,  27,  August  1,  5, 1864. 

'  Speech  of  Hon.  Frank  Tilford,  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  2, 1864. 
11    H   C 


yQ2  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

resign  signed  by  3,500  citizens  of  Storey  county,  whose  names  were  given,' 
nine-tenths  of  the  voting  population,  as  was  alleged.  The  judges  at  last 
bent  to  the  storm.  Judge  North  resigned  first,  August  22, 1864,^  and  it  was 
hoped  by  the  other  judges  that  this  sacrifice  might  content  the  people, 
but  they  were  soon  undeceived.  On  the  day  when  the  resignation  of 
Judge  North  was  announced  (August  22d)  Judge  Turner  took  his  seat  on 
the  bench  as  usual,  but,  after  a  private  conference  with  Mr.  Stewart,^  he 
was  induced  to  follow  the  example  of  Judge  North,  and  accordingly  made 
a  farewell  address  to  the  bar,  announcing  his  resignation,  and  expressing 
in  fair-sounding  terms  his  appreciation  of  the  existing  friendly  relation- 
ship. 

Upon  this  announcement,  and  the  immediate  adjournment  of  court 
which  followed,  Mr.  Stewart  invited  the  members  of  the  bar  to  be  present 
at  an  informal  celebration.*  After  a  brief  consideration  the  assembled 
company  decided  to  remove  the  solitary  figure  on  the  Nevada  bench. 
Accordingly  Judge  H.  0.  Beatty  was  appointed  chairman  of  the  meeting 
by  acclamation,  and  two  young  lawyers  were  deputed  to  wait  upon  Judge 
Locke  and  request  the  favor  of  his  presence.  The  committee  were  in- 
structed by  Mr.  Stewart  to  bring  the  judge  without  fail,  though  he  hoped 
there  would  be  no  occasion  for  unkindly  suasion.  The  judge  appeared 
with  reasonable  promptness,  and  the  chairman  of  the  meeting  announced 
to  him  that,  inasmuch  as  the  majority  of  his  associates  on  the  bench  had 
resigned,  it  was  the  opinion  of  the  assembled  bar  that  he  ought  to  follow 
their  example.  Judge  Locke  hesitated,  and  stammered  out  a  few  words, 
expressing  his  willingness,  personally,  to  resign,  but  his  doubt  whether  his 
duty  to  his  immediate  constituents  in  the  county  of  his  residence  would 
permit  of  his  doing  so  without  consulting  them.  Mr.  William  H.  Claggett 
thereupon  rose  and  assured  the  dubious  judge  that,  from  his  personal 
knowledge  of  the  sentiments  of  the  constituents  in  question,  nothing  could 
gratify  them  more  than  this  resignation.  The  judge  cast  an  imploring 
look  at  Mr.  Stewart,  who,  up  to  that  time,  had  taken  no  active  part  in  the 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19, 1864. 
"  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  23,  1864. 
'  William  M.  Stewart. 
<  William  M.  Stewart. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  163 

proceedingo.  "Mr.  Stewart,"  said  he,  "what  do  you  think  I  ought  to  do?" 
"Do!"  replied  the  lawyer  gruffly,  "Resign,  and  resign  now!"  Paper  and 
ink  were  brought  at  his  order  by  the  waiter.  "  Now  sit  down  and  write 
out  your  resignation ! "  The  judge  obeyed,  and  thus  the  bench  was  cleared 
of  the  Territorial  judiciary  in  one  day.  Then  the  united  company,  includ- 
ing the  judge,  continued  the  celebration  with  redoubled  fervor.^ 

Mr.  North  alone  of  the  three  judges  took  action  to  clear  his  name 
from  reproach.  Libel  suits  were  instituted  by  him  in  December,  1864, 
against  Mr.  Stewart  and  the  proprietors  of  the  Virginia  City  Territorial 
Enterprise.  By  consent,  the  suits  were  withdrawn  from  the  courts  in 
September,  1865,  and  the  evidence  submitted  to  three  competent  referees. 
Tod  Robinson,  William  H.  Rhodes,  and  George  F.  Jones.  The  referees 
reported  "that  the  evidence  introduced  failed  to  show  any  acts  of  corrup- 
tion on  the  part  of  the  plaintiff,  and  that  his  motives  in  the  administra- 
tion of  his  office  as  judge  were  pure  and  his  conduct  in  the  trial,  argu- 
ment, and  decision  of  causes  before  him  blameless."  They  censured, 
however,  with  just  severity,  his  "conduct  in  connection  with  Judge  Locke's 
position  in  the  Ghollar  and  Potosi  litigation  as  unworthy  the  high  position 
he  held,  and  calculated  to  awaken  suspicion,  cr^te  animosity,  impair  his 
influence  as  a  magistrate,  and  lower  his  dignity  as  a  man.""  While  con- 
demning the  defendant  Stewart  and  the  other  libellants  to  pay  costs  of  pro- 
ceedings, therefore,  they  mention  as  circumstances  which  palliate  their 
offense  "the  imbroglio  attending  Judge  Mott's  resignation,  its  venality  and 
secrecy,  and  the  compromising  nature  of  Mr.  North's  position  as  judge, 
mill-owner,  debtor,  and  confidential  friend  to  a  leading  Potosi  partisan."  ^ 

The  excuse  which  Mr.  North  offered  in  explanation  of  this  compro- 
mising position,  the  insufficiency  of  his  salary,  was  a  true  plea  undoubt- 
edly, but  invalid,  for  he  was  not  constrained  to  accept  the  nomination  to 
a  seat  on  the  bench.  The  government  allowance  of  $1,800  yearly  as  the 
salary  of  a  justice  of  the  supreme  Territorial  court^  was  preposterous  when 
compared  with  the  earnings  of  a  competent  lawyer  anywhere,  but  espec- 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  23,  1864  ;  William  M.  Stewart. 

'  Report  of  Referees,  dated  September  16,  1865 ;  Washoe  Times,  October  21,  1865 ;  Territorial  Enter- 
prJBe,  October  25,  1865. 

"  Organic  Act  of  Congress,  approved  March  2,  1861,  Section  11. 


154  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

ially  in  the  Nevada  courts.     It  is  true  that  this  pitiful  stipend  was  increased 
by  a  charitable  legislative  enactment,  assigning  to  the  justices  at  one  time 
a  share  of  the  docket  fees/  and  later  a  fixed  allowance  of  |4,200  severally,'^ 
but  orders  upon  the  Territorial  treasury  were  not  cash,  as  the  judges  learned 
to  their  cost/  and  even  the  enlarged  compensation  was  clearly  inadequate. 
No  lawyer  of  the  highest  standing  could  afford  to  accept  the  judicial  posi- 
tion, and  only  lawyers  of  the  highest  standing  were  fit  to  preside  over  the 
trial  of  complicated  cases  on  whose  issue  millions  of  dollars  were  staked. 
It  was  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the  simple  acceptance  of  a  judg- 
ship  should  occasion  suspicion  of  the  honor  of  the  incumbent,  and  this 
suspicion  was  certain  to  become  an  indignant  passion  unless  his  every 
action  was  scrupulously  guarded.     The  Territorial  bench  of  Nevada  were 
conspicuously  indiscreet.     That  they  were  corrupt  as  well  is  a  charge 
which  only  the  most  positive  evidence  can  justify;    yet  the   attorney 
general  of  the  State  of  Nevada  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  in  a  formal 
address  that  "  Nevada  became  a  State  to  escape  the  dead-fall  of  her  Ter- 
ritorial courts.     Her  temple  of  justice  had  been  transformed  into  a  den 
of  iniquity,  from  which  the  ermine  seldom  escapes  untainted  and  justice 
never  unscathed."*  This  Was  a  strongly  worded,  if  somewhat  metaphorical, 
presentment,  and  may  not  be  justifiable,  but  it  is  certain  that,  with  the 
resignation  of  the  three  judges  and  the  installation  of  a  State  judiciary, 
which  followed  in  December,  1864,^  the  fierce  excitement  of  the  Washoe 
litigation  was  greatly  abated.     The  new  bench  was  composed  of  able  and 
trusted  lawyers  who  comprehended  the  difficulties  which  surrounded  their 
position,  and  so  guarded  their  actions  as  to  raise  themselves  above  suspi- 
cion of  corruption.     Rival  claims  were  still  hotly  contested,  but  the  ruling 
of  the  courts  was  respected  and  resort  to  open  violence  in  maintaining 
asserted  rights  was  abandoned.     The  last  hand-to-hand  contest  recorded 
took  place  during  the  month  preceding  the  resignation  of  the  Territorial 

'  Act  approved  November  29,  1861,  chap.  LIV;  Laves  of  the  Territory  of  Nevada,  1861. 

^  Act  approved  December  19,  1862,  chap.  LXXII ;  Ibid.,  1862. 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  19, 1864 ;  Stenogi-aphic  Report;  Speech  of  James  W.  North,  Jan.  16, 1864. 

*  Nevada  Reports  (Helm)  No.  4,  p.  17  ;  Address  of  E.  M.  Clarke,  Attorney  General,  May  13,  1867,  upon 
death  of  Cornelius  M.  Brosnan,  Justice  of  State  Supreme  Court ;  State  Constitution,  framed  by  convention  in 
July  and  ratified  in  September,  1864  ;  Thomas  Fitch,  "  Nevada  Mines,"  Harper's  Magazine,  August,  1865 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  6,  1864. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.    '  165 

bench,  when  a  column  of  flame  and  smoke  shot  up  from  the  shaft  of  the 
Gentle  Annie  Company  (July  11, 1864)  and  the  miners  of  the  New  Oregon 
Company  heaped  up  the  firebrands  from  their  hostile  drift  below.' 

Although  the  black  clouds  which  hung  over  the  titles  on  the  lode  had 
lifted  somewhat  on  the  abolition  of  the  Territorial  courts,  the  legal  contest 
was  far  from  being  at  an  end ;  but  the  parallel-ledge  theory  received  a 
heavy  blow  in  the  summer  of  1864  from  the  report  of  John  Nugent,^  an 
able  lawyer,  appointed  by  Judge  North,  May  17,  1864,  as  referee  in  the 
suit  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company  vs.  the  North  Potosi  Mining 
Company.^  The  location  of  the  North  Potosi  Mining  Company  was  made 
April  23,  1860,  on  an  assumed  "blind  ledge,  bounded  on  the  west  by  the 
Savage,  Gould,  and  Norcross  companies'  claims."*  There  was  a  surface 
separation  of  several  hundred  feet  between  the  croppings  of  the  Gould  & 
Curry  claim  and  the  line  of  this  blind  ledge,  and  it  does  not  appear  that 
any  objection  was  made  at  the  time  to  the  location  of  the  North  Potosi 
claim  and  such  work  as  the  members  of  the  company  chose  to  carry  on  in 
developing  their  ledge.  It  will  be  remembered  that  in  the  spring  of  1860 
the  dip  of  the  Comstock  ledge  was  to  the  west,  as  far  as  was  ascertained 
by  exploration,  and  locations  to  the  east  were  commonly  regarded  as  wild- 
cat claims  undeserving  of  serious  attention.  But  when  it  was  made  evi- 
dent by  subsequent  developments  that  the  pitch  of  the  Comstock  ledge 
had  changed  to  the  east,  the  outlying  claims  in  that  direction  became 
more  valuable,  for  if  the  dip  of  the  ledge  should  continue  in  the  same 
direction  it  would  undoubtedly  pass  under  the  surface-lines  of  these  claims 
and  might  be  tapped  by  sinking  shafts  within  these  lines.  Accordingly, 
the  North  Potosi  Company's  stock  was  bought  up  by  shrewd  speculators, 
and  their  workings  pushed  until  a  body  of  paying  quartz  was  actually 
uncovered.  The  company  were  proceeding  to  take  out  the  ore  when  an 
injunction  was  prayed  for  against  them  by  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company. 
The  point  at  issue  was  of  course  the  existence  of  distinct  ledges — one 

>Gold  mil  News,  July  12,  1864. 

2  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  23,  1864 ;  Report  of  John  Nugent. 

=  First  District  Court  Minntes,  Book  III,  p.  256. 

<  Virginia  Mining  District  Records,  Book  E.  p.  126. 


IQQ  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

held  by  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company  and  one  by  the  North  Potosi.  If  the 
apparent  surface  separation  was  a  real  one,  the  North  Potosi  Company 
were  entitled  to  hold  the  ore  discovered.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  their  ore- 
body  was  merely  a  spur  or  continuation  of  that  portion  of  the  Comstock 
ledge  held  by  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company,  they  were  "jumpers,"  in  the 
phrase  of  the  district,  "pretended  miners,"  as  Saenz  calls  them,^  "rascals," 
in  the  words  of  Agricola,  "who  should  be  banished  from  the  mines  as 
pilferers."^  Inclines  were  at  once  cut  by  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company  to 
establish  their  claim  of  the  continuance  of  their  ledge  through  the  ground 
of  the  North  Potosi  and  its  inclusion  of  the  newly  found  ore-body.  A 
cloud  of  witnesses  and  experts  were  summoned  by  both  parties  to  give 
contradictory  affidavits  and  testimony,  and  formidable  arrays  of  counsel 
were  pitted  against  each  other. 

In  the  arguments  of  counsel  before  the  referee,  Hon.  Frank  Hereford 
maintained  the  cause  of  the  defendant  and  the  existence  of  distinct  ledges 
along  the  line  of  the  Comstock  with  a  brief  and  oral  plea  of  uncommon 
ingenuity  and  brilliancy.^  It  is  probable  that  no  more  forcible  defense,  in 
view  of  the  facts  offered  in  evidence,  could  have  been  made.  He  cited  the 
apposite  decision  of  Judge  North  in  favor  of  the  Burning  Moscow  Com- 
pany, and  pressed  its  applicability  to  the  case  in  question  with  the  words  : 
"Judge  North  has  practically  said  that  when  he  sees  a  separation  he 
knows  nothing  beyond  it ;  that  when  he  sees  a  partition  like  this  in  a 
mineral  country  he  cannot  ignore  it ;  that  when  he  sees  a  division  he  must 
regard  it  as  a  division  until  the  contrary  is  proved,  and  the  counsel  for 
the  plaintiff  are  asking  too  much  when  they  ask  your  honor,  by  virtue 
of  their  theory  and  their  theory  alone,  to  give  the  parallel  ledge  to  the 
plaintiff  because  they  believe  or  they  suppose  that  at  some  places  deep 
down  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth  these  two  ledges  come  together." 

In  the  case  in  question  a  mighty  wall  of  separation  divided  the  ledges, 
as  he  claimed,  in  the  form  of  a  huge  mass  of  porphyry  1,600  feet  in  length 
and  from  400  to  600  feet  in  width.     By  citing,  comparing,  and  opposing 


'  Don  Joseph  Saenz,  Tratado  de  Medidas  de  las  Minas,  cap.  7,  n.  2. 

^DereMetall,  lib.  1,  p.  16. 

3  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  Aug.  25, 1864 ;  Plea  of  Mr.  Frank  Hereford ;  Phonographic  Report. 


IISTTEEMINABLE  LITIGATION.  167 

the  testimonj'  of  the  various  witnesses  he  vigorously  combated  the  prop- 
osition that  this  immense  body  of  barren  rocks  could  have  fallen  from  the 
eastern  wall  of  one  great  lode.  "Such  a  theory,"  said  he  in  conclusion, "was 
preposterous  on  its  face  and  unsupported  by  evidence.  The  early  pros- 
pectors had  no  such  far-reaching  notions  of  the  unlimited  extent  of  their 
claims.  They  searched  for  veins,  for  seams  of  ore,  and  their  locations 
were  made  and  recorded  for  such  apparent  seams  and  not  for  an  immense 
chasm  1,000  feet  wide  at  the  surface.  To  base  a  claim  to  the  ownership 
of  this  chasm  on  titles  derived  from  them  was  the  height  of  impudence ; 
to  ignore  the  existence  of  the  great  wall  of  division  was  an  astounding 
instance  of  blindness.  It  is  true,"  he  added,  "  that  Mr.  Stewart  attempted 
to  stable  this  immense  horse,  but  with  very  indifferent  success ;  and  if  the 
principle  be  established  that  such  immense  masses  of  rock — such  natural 
divisions  of  veins — shall  be  treated  as  horses,  that  the  veins  east  and  west 
shall  be  decided  to  form  parts  of  one  immense  vein,  formed  in  an  immense 
chasm,  it  will  be  more  dangerous  and  destructive  to  the  interests  of  this 
country  than  was  the  wooden  horse  to  the  ill-fated  city  of  Troy,  although 
it  wrapped  that  city  in  flames.  If  this  vein  is  to  be  so  extended  in  width 
it  is  by  far  the  largest  vein  that  ever  was  heard  of  in  the  world,  to  be 
accounted  for  by  an  unheard-of  theory.  What  is  the  idea  of  a  vein,  for 
that  is  what  the  miners  intended  to  locate,  and  not  a  yawning  chasm."  His 
plea  concludes  with  an  answer  to  his  own  question,  citing  Whitney,  Phil- 
lips, and  other  authorities  of  recognized  standing,  in  the  endeavor  to  prove 
that  a  vein  is  confined  between  comparatively  narrow  boundaries  by  its 
very  definition,  and  comparing  the  vein  occurrence  of  the  Freiburg  dis- 
trict with  the  characteristics  of  the  Washoe  veins. 

But  the  fallacies  of  this  argument  were  clearly  exposed  by  the 
arguments  of  the  opposing  counsel  and  by  the  report  of  the  referee  in 
communicating  his  decision  to  Judge  North.  This  last  treatise,^  now 
practically  buried  from  sight  in  the  vaults  of  a  San  Francisco  bank, 
deserves  resurrection  as  the  clearest  presentation  of  the  characteristics 
of  the  Comstock  Lode  which  had  up  to  that  time  been  given.  The  referee, 
in  the  course  of  his  admirable  investigation,  "stabled  the  horse"  finally, 

'  Report  of  Referee;  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  23, 1864. 


168  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

in  spite  of  Mr.  Hereford's  warning ;  blew  to  powder  a  popular  theory  of 
the  actual  separation  of  ledges  by  seams  of  clay,  and  forestalled  to  some 
extent  the  conclusions  of  the  eminent  geologist,  Baron  von  Richthofen, 
made  public  during  the  following  year. 

"The  line  of  the  fissure  of  the  Comstock  vein  occurred,"  he  said,  "at 
the  junction  of  two  rocks  of  different  character;  on  the  east  porphyry 
mixed  with  feldspar,^  and  on  the  west  syenite  or  hornblendic  porphyry,^ 
a  hard,  tough  rock,  wholly  dissimilar  from  that  on  the  east,  which  is  com- 
paratively soft  and  friable.  The  western  or  foot  wall  of  the  fissure  could 
be  readily  traced  as  a  mass  of  solid,  hard  hornblendic  porphyry,  covered 
generally  with  a  sheet  of  trap  rock  on  the  eastern  face,  and  next  to  that, 
between  the  rock  and  the  vein  matter,  a  selvedge  in  most  places  several 
feet  thick,  of  dark-bluish  clay.  This  foot  wall  dips  to  the  east  at  an  angle 
of  from  41°  to  53°  or  from  45°  to  57°.  The  critical  point  evidently  is 
the  determination  of  the  east  wall.  The  defendant  points  to  a  belt  of 
porphyry  running  continuously  for  a  distance  of  1,400  feet,  except  where 
it  is  broken  by  90  feet  of  quartz,  to  the  west  of  what  is  claimed  by  the 
defendant  as  its  ledge.  Defendant  also  points  to  a  clay  wall,  which  his 
witnesses  assert  runs  continuously  north  and  south  a  distance  of  1,400 
feet,  bounding  defendant's  claim  on  the  west  throughout  the  entire  dis- 
tance. This  belt  of  porphyry  and  this  clay  wall  defendant  insists  consti- 
tute an  absolute  division.  Can  a  clay  wall  constitute  a  separation  between 
two  veins?  Professor  Blake^  and  Mr.  Thomas*  swear  that  it  can.  No 
other  authority  is  known  for  such  a  position.  The  unanimous  and 
uncontradicted  testimony  of  authors  and  experts  represents  a  clay  wall  as 
a  mere  incident  to  the  formation  of  a  vein,  and  not  always  even  that,  but 
only  an  occasional  accident  resulting  from  mechanical  motion  whenever 
and  wherever  that  motion  occurs.  The  only  theory  verified  by  the 
appearance  and  by  the  constituents  of  this  clay  seam  is  that  of  mechan- 
ical motion,  causing  attrition  of  the  walls  of  the  fissure  against  each  other 
and  of  the  contents  of  the  veins  against  the  walls.  There  may  be  some 
deposition  from  the  surface,  the  clay  being  swept  into  the  chinks  and 


'  Recently  determined  to  be  diobase.  ^  Kecently  determined  to  be  diorite. 

'Prof.  W.  F.  Blake.  '  C.  C.  Tlmmas,  Superintendent  Sutro  Tunnel  Company,  1881. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION,  169 

cavities  of  mineral  veins  by  floods  or  springs;  but  this  can  only  be  true  to 
a  certain  extent,  accounting  for  some  of  the  masses  and  bunches  of  clay 
found  in  the  veins  and  not  for  the  more  observable  phenomena  of  clay 
seams.  It  has  been  proved  that  the  clay  in  most  of  the  seams  was  formed 
of  the  rock  of  the  adjacent  walls.  When  the  seam  passes  through 
porphyry  it  contains  smooth  and  rounded  pebbles  of  porphyry;  when  it 
passes  through  quartz  it  contains  quartz-grit  and  rounded  pebbles  of  that 
material ;  when  it  runs  through  metalliferous  rock  it  bears  metal.  First, 
then,  we  have  the  chasm  in  the  rock;  then  the  contents  of  the  vein,  and 
then  the  mechanical  violence  forming  the  clay  seams.  Clay  seams,  there- 
fore, being  formed  subsequently  to  the  formation  of  the  vein,  cannot  be 
the  walls  of  the  vein.  Only  three  of  the  witnesses  believe  that  veins  may 
be  separated  by  a  clay  wall — Professor  Blake  for  the  plaintiff  and  Messrs. 
Thomas  and  Meyers  for  the  defendant.  Let  us  see  the  consequences  of 
adhering  to  such  a  theory.  Mr.  I.  E.  James,  a  witness  for  the  plaintiff, 
swears  that  in  the  workings  covering  a  belt  of  two  thousand  feet  north 
and  south  from  the  north  line  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  to  the  south  line 
of  the  Savage,  he  found  over  fifty  clay  seams  running  east  and  west  as 
well  as  north  and  south,  and  dipping  at  various  angles  in  all  directions, 
and  that  a  number  of  these  are  heavier  masses  than  is  the  defendant's 
west  wall  at  certain  points.  Mr.  Bonner  found  large  masses  of  clay  in 
the  vein  in  every  form,  a  net-work  of  clay  seams,  from  the  thickness  of  a 
sheet  of  paper  to  the  width  of  five  and  ten  feet,  running  across  the  ledge, 
and  with  the  ledge,  and  cutting  it  diagonally,  as  well  as  bodies  of  clay 
twenty  and  thirty  feet  thick  and  a  good  many  feet  high.  They  knot,  fork, 
and  run  in  every  direction.  They  are  mere  accidental  formations  in  a 
ledge."  The  testimony  of  Professors  Blake,  Ashburner,  Silliman,  and 
others  was  also  quoted  in  evidence  of  a  similar  mode  of  occurrence  of 
the  clay  bodies.  "A  number  of  witnesses  on  both  sides  have  testified  that 
in  many  instances  clay  seams  seen  at  one  level  give  out  at  a  lower  depth 
and  are  seen  no  more,  their  occurrence  being  very  uncertain,  as  they 
appear  at  one  point  and  disappear  at  a  corresponding  point  where  they 
might  naturally  be  expected  to  show  themselves.  If  every  clay  wall,  then, 
were  to  be  regarded  as  the  wall  of  a  ledge,  or  as  the  separation  between 


170  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

two  ledges,  the  vein  would  be  cut  into  numberless  pieces — 'subdivided,' 
as  Professor  Silliman  says,  '  into  innumerable  minor  portions,  a  net-work 
of  isolated  masses,  not  distinguishable  from  each  other  by  any  recogniz- 
able feature,'  and  to  develop  or  work  these  segregated  portions  would  be 
wholly  impossible." 

Having  thus  demolished  effectually  the  theory  that  a  clay  seam  was 
or  could  be  a  true  wall  of  division,  Mr.  Nugent  proceeded  to  consider  the 
question  whether  the  belt  of  porphyry  which  was  alleged  to  separate  the 
ledges  was  in  reality  the  east  wall  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  vein.  "This 
belt,"  he  said,  "terminates  in  the  Savage  Company's  works,  and  is  there 
succeeded  on  the  south  by  a  mass  of  quartz  (which  Mr.  Hereford  did 
not  care  to  notice  particularly)  70  feet  in  length.  Thence  it  runs  south, 
with  slighter  interruptions  of  clay  or  quartz,  into  the  Hale  &  Norcross 
works.  The  foot  or  west  wall  of  the  vein,  it  will  be  remembered,  has  an 
average  dip  to  the  east  of  45°.  The  east  or  overhanging  wall,  as  it  is 
called  by  geologists,  must  have  a  proximately  corresponding  inclination  it 
it  has  remained  in  place,  but  as  yet  no  wall  has  been  found  with  even  a 
remotely  corresponding  inclination.  One  of  two  things,  then,  must  be 
true;  either  the  original  east  wall  has  not  remained  in  position,  but  has 
been  disturbed  and  partially  displaced,  or  else  it  is  to  be  looked  for  farther 
east  than  any  explorations  have  yet  been  made.  If  it  be  farther  to  the 
east  than  the  country  has  yet  been  opened  up,  the  belt  of  porphyry  west 
of  the  North  Potosi  cannot  be  the  east  wall  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  vein.  If 
the  overhanging  wall  has  been  displaced  and  has  fallen  into  the  fissure, 
it  must  have  been  displaced  to  the  depth  of  over  500  feet,  for  at  that 
distance  from  the  surface  no  wall  has  been  discovered  in  any  degree  cor- 
responding in  inclination  with  the  foot  wall.  The  displacement  of  such 
an  area  of  country  would  fully  account  for  the  masses  of  porphyry  found 
west  of  the  North  Potosi  claim.  The  overhanging  wall  of  the  fissure  then 
must  either  be  still  standing  somewhere,  or  else  its  top  must  have  been 
broken  off  by  force  of  gravity  and  fallen  in  masses  into  the  fissure.  Silli- 
man accounts  for  the  masses  of  porphyry  lying  to  the  west  of  the  defendant's 
claim  by  saying  that,  in  the  production  of  the  fissure,  the  overhanging 
rock,  being  unsupported,  has  fallen  into  the  chasm  in  masses,  one  upon 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  171. 

another,  and  lying  against  each  other  in  every  accidental  position,  the 
intervening  spaces  being  filled  with  quartz  in  a  semi-fluid  or  pasty  con- 
dition ;  and  he  describes  the  contents  of  the  vein  in  many  places  as  brec- 
ciated,  broken  up  into  innumerable  fragments  and  pasted  together  again  by 
this  siliceous  cement.  He  accounts  for  the  apparent  width  of  the  vein  near 
the  surface  by  the  hypothesis  that  a  triangular  mass  falling  from  the  over- 
hanging wall  left  a  chasm  wider  by  ten  or  twelve  times  than  the  mouth  of 
the  original  fissure.  Bonner  agrees  with  Silliman.  North  of  the  south 
line  of  the  Savage  mine  the  belt  of  porphyry  is  found  generally  in  masses, 
without  shape  or  form,  ribbed  with  quartz  and  seamed  with  clay — some- 
times hard  enough  to  necessitate  blasting,  again  crumbling  and  friable. 
Then  follow  90  feet  of  quartz,  and  then  the  porphyry  appears  again.  It 
is  very  improbable  that  the  wall  of  a  fissure  would  be  found  completely 
broken  across  by  a  body  of  quartz  90  feet  in  length,  connected  with 
another  body  of  quartz  (lying  alongside),  except  where  it  is  separated  by 
a  narrow  ribbon  of  clay  less  than  half  an  inch  in  thickness  in  some 
places.  The  size  of  the  mass  of  porphyry  cannot  be  regarded  as  proving 
anything,  for  large  masses  may  fairly  be  presumed  to  have  fallen  into  a 
large  fissure  with  an  overhanging  wall  at  an  angle  of  45°  or  50°.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  in  all  the  mines  of  the  district,  the  North  Potosi  as 
well  as  the  rest,  porphyry  takes  up  much  greater  space  than  all  the  other 
materials  combined.'"^  In  conclusion,  the  referee,  "after  a  long,  anxious, 
and  laborious  examination,"  declared  his  conviction  that  the  two  so-called 
ledges  were  parts  of  the  same  vein,  and  adjudged  that  an  order  of  injunc- 
tion should  be  granted  to  the  plaintiff  (the  Gould  &  Curry  Company)  in 
conformity  with  the  prayer  of  the  bill. 

The  abstract  of  Mr.  Nugent's  report  here  given  is  probably  sufficient 
to  show  the  justice  of  his  conclusions;  but  neither  his  comprehensive 
discussion,  nor  the  evidence  of  subsequent  explorations,  nor  the  testimony 
of  such  geologists  as  Richthofen,  King,  and  Church,  has  yet  convinced 
locators  on  the  eastern  ledges  that  they  are  "pretended  miners." 

'  As  before  noted,  later  investigations  have  conclusively  established  the  fact  that  the  principal  masses  of 
country  rock  or  "  horses"  imbedded  in  the  fissure  have  not  fallen  from  the  overhanging  wall,  but  have  become 
detached  by  the  lateral  and  upward  pressure  to  which  the  rock  crust  has  been  subjected,  and  after  their  disjuno 
tion  have  slipped  or  faulted  to  their  present  positions. 


j^72  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  principal  fighting  companies  who  had  borne  the  brunt  of  the 
battle  for  the  ledges  were,  however,  fast  becoming  tired  of  waging  a  costly 
and  apparently  interminable  war.  The  profits  of  their  mining  operations 
were  swallowed  up  in  ordinary  and  extraordinary  legal  expenses.^  Pre- 
cisely how  much  was  paid  out  in  this  contest  cannot  be  ascertained,  as 
some  of  the  companies  have  ceased  to  exist  and  others  are  unwilling  to 
furnish  the  desired  information.  If  their  accounts  resemble  that  of  the 
Grass  Valley  Mining  Company  this  reluctance  is  natural.  By  judicial 
order  the  books  of  this  company  were  examined  in  1864  by  a  competent 
accountant  and  the  result  reported  to  B.  C.  Whitman,  referee,  in  July, 
1864.  The  account  showed  that  the  total  assessments  were  $109,200,  of 
which  $39,062.03  were  still  delinquent,  and  $70,137.97  were  entered  as 
cash  received.  Of  this  amount  $3,837.48  remained  as  cash  on  hand  and 
$66,309.50  had  been  expended  as  follows: 

Labor  account $5,280  74 

Crushing  ore^ 769  34 

Loans  to  a  number  of  persons  (names  given)  who  had  been  witnesses  in  suits 

in  which  the  company  was  interested 12,821  54 

Paid  to  various  persons  (no  particulars  given) , 6,  999  00 

Paid  to  John  Doe 500  00 

Paid  attorney's  fees  (no  name  given) 500  00 

Paid  to  Stewart  and  Baldwin, attorneys 5,000  00 

Paid  out  and  unaccounted  for 10,587  58 

*  *  *  *.*  *  *  * 

Of  the  balance,  $23,859.30,  no  itemized  account  of  expenditure  was 
published,  though  it  was  stated  that  loans  to  several  persons  covered  a 
portion  of  it.^  It  is  true  that  the  Grass  Valley  mine  was  notoriously  a 
fighting  claim,  so-called,  and  the  relation  of  the  ordinary  mine  expenses 
to  the  extraordinary  disbursements  was  therefore  exceptional,  but  the 
account  is  nevertheless  significant  and  illustrative. 

S.  H.  Marlette,  surveyor  general  of  Nevada,  estimated  the  amount 
expended  in  litigation  during  the  years  1860-'65  inclusive,  at  $9,000,000, 
one-fifth  of  the  total  product  of  the  mines,  and  considerably  more  than  was 

'Firfc  in  this  connection  Albert  D.  Richardson,  "Beyond  the  Mississippi,"  Edition  of  1865;  Letter  of 
Jerome  B.  StUlson  to  New  York  World,  dated  July  3,  1865. 
-No  entry  of  results  in  books. 
3  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  July  30,  1864 ;  from  Virginia  Union ;  Report  of  Accountant  to  Referee. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION.  173 

declared  in  dividends  during  the  same  time.'  Hon.  William  M.  Stewart,  a 
competent  judge,  agrees  in  substance  with  General  Marlette.  He  estimates 
the  cost  of  the  litigation  carried  on  by  the  Chollar  and  Potosi  Mining 
companies  prior  to  1866  at  $1,300,000,  and  the  expenses  of  the  Ophir- 
Moscow  war  at  somewhat  less  than  $800,000.  The  total  costs  of  litigation 
in  the  district  up  to  January  1,  1866,  he  computes  at  $10,000,000." 

These  figures  were  unanswerable  arguments  against  the  impolicy  of 
further  protracting  a  suicidal  contest.  Yet  the  bone  of  contention,  which 
had  occasioned  the  overthrow  of  the  Territorial  bench  and  had  been  a 
main  cause  of  the  creation  of  the  new  State,  was  still  wrangled  for.  It 
was  simply  whether  a  former  decision  in  the  suit  of  the  Chollar  and 
Potosi  companies  was  a  bar  to  further  litigation  based  on  the  old  titles. 
If  the  Chollar  Company  gained  their  point  the  war  with  the  Potosi  Com- 
pany must  be  fought  over  again  with  a  depleted  treasury  and  wasted 
resources.  The  Potosi  Company  was  equally  crippled  and  equally  anxious 
for  peace.  The  suit  of  the  Chollar  Company  was  set  for  trial  March  24, 
1865,  and  arguments  of  opposing  counsel  were  made  during  the  three 
following  weeks ;  ^  but  before  a  decision  was  rendered  a  compromise  was 
arranged  which  withdrew  the  vexed  question  finally  from  the  courts,  and 
a  consolidation  of  the  two  companies  was  definitely  agreed  upon  as  a  basis 
of  settlement  on  April  22,  1865.*  The  company  which  was  the  fruit  of 
this  union  was  incorporated  as  the  Chollar-Potosi  Mining  Company,  on 
the  basis  of  an  equal  distribution  of  shares  to  holders  of  the  same  number 
of  feet  in  either  of  the  old  companies  and  a  joint  assumption  of  the  out- 
standing liabilities  of  the  Grass  Valley  Mining  Company,  whose  title  was 
transferred  to  the  new  company." 

The  Ophir  and  Burning  Moscow  companies  were  not  quite  ready  to 
follow  the  example  of  the  Chollar  and  Potosi  companies  and  compromise 
their  respective  claims. 


'  Mines  and  Mining ;  J.  Ross  Browne,  United  States  Commissioner,  Report  for  1866,  p.  32. 
«  William  M.  Stewart,  March  15,  1880. 
'  Weelsly  Stock  Circular,  March  25,  April  1, 8, 15, 1865. 
*  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  April  22, 1865. 

6A.  K.Harmon,  President  Chollar-Potosi  Mining  Company,  1880;  I.  L.  Requa,  Superintendent  Chollar- 
Potosi  Mining  Company,  1880. 


174  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

The  rapid  advance  in  the  price  of  Burning  Moscow  stock  on  the 
announcement  of  the  decision  of  Judge  North  denying  the  Ophir  Com- 
pany's appHcation  for  an  injunction  has  been  noted.  The  price  per  foot 
reached  $190  on  December  28,  1863/  and  the  stockholders  were  jubilant, 
but  th  eir  exultation  was  short-lived.  The  ore-body  discovered  in  February, 
1863,  was  small,  though  extremely  rich,  and  the  costs  of  litigation  had 
swallowed  up  all  the  profits  derived  from  its  extraction  and  reduction. 
At  the  very  moment  when  its  possession  was  confirmed  to  the  Burning 
Moscow  Company  it  was  no  longer  worth  holding ;  only  the  shell  of  the 
bonanza  remained ;  the  treasure  had  been  wasted.  As  soon  as  the 
stockholders  realized  this  their  anxiety  to  dispose  of  their  shares  equaled 
their  former  eagerness  to  obtain  them.  The  levy  of  an  assessment  of  $15 
per  foot  hastened  the  fall.  In  February,  1864,  the  stock  was  sold  at  $70 
per  foot,^  declining  to  less  than  half  its  former  value  in  the  course  of  a  few 
weeks.  No  efforts  of  the  stock  bulls  could  check  the  depression,  and  on 
the  30th  of  July,  1864,  the  stock  was  quoted  at  $12  per  foot  with  few  buyers.^ 
The  mine  appeared  valueless  intrinsically,  and  the  fickle  bulls  and  bears 
no  longer  cared  to  play  battledoor  and  shuttlecock  with  its  stock.  For 
two  months  its  shares  were  practically  shelved,  but  during  the  last  week 
of  September  they  were  again  eagerly  sought  for,  though  no  explanation 
of  this  demand  was  granted  to  the  public  at  large.*  One  thousand  six 
hundred  and  eighteen  shares,  more  than  one-third  of  the  whole  stock, 
were  sold  at  prices  ranging  from  $32  to  $75  per  foot  during  this  week,  and 
7,004  shares,  nearly  double  the  total  stock,  were  disposed  of  in  open  board 
at  rates  ranging  as  high  as  $92  per  foot,  in  the  course  of  the  four  weeks 
ending  October  22,  1864,  before  any  tangible  reason  for  the  rise  in  value 
of  the  mine  had  been  given.^  During  the  following  week  a  little  informa- 
tion was  suffered  to  leak  out  unofficially  in  the  reported  discovery  of  a  vein 
of  paying  ore,  6  feet  wide,  at  two  points,  140  and  200  feet  below  the  sur- 
face, and  on  the  strength  of  this  report  1,851  more  shares  were  sold  at 
rates  ranging  from  $59  to  $82.^    The  deal  had  been  successfully  made, 

» Sanborn's  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  January  2,  1864.  'Ibid.,  February  20,  1864. 

3  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  July  30,  1864.  *Ibid.,  October  1.  1864. 

•■Ibid.,  October  8,  15,  22,  1864.  ^Ibid.,  October  29,  1864. 


INTBEMINABLE  LITIGATION.  175 

and  its  managers  concluded  to  prick  the  bubble.  The  ore  from  the  new 
vein  was  assayed,  the  result  announced,  and  the  stock  fell  to  $20  per  foot 
in  a  single  week,  about  three-fourths  of  the  total  number  of  shares  being 
thrown  on  the  market.^  After  this  fall  it  seemed  improbable  that  the 
shuttlecock  would  be  tossed  up  again  for  some  time,  but  amid  general 
surprise  the  game  was  renewed  more  actively  than  ever.  A  contest 
ensued  such  as  the  stock  market  had  never  before  known.  Nine  thousand 
two  hundred  and  twenty  shares,  more  than  twice  the  total  stock  of  the 
mine,  were  sold  in  three  weeks,  so  that  the  mine  was  bought  and  sold 
three  times  during  the  month  of  November.^  What  it  was  worth  except 
as  a  plaything  for  stock  speculators  did  not  clearly  appear,  but  this  was 
not  acknowledged  until  the  following  February  (1865),  when  it  was  tossed 
aside  for  some  new  toy.^ 

On  the  1st  of  June,  1865,  the  quoted  value  of  the  mine  was  only  $40 
per  foot,*  but  the  Moscow  Company  had  contended  so  long  with  its  rival, 
the  Ophir,  that  its  stockholders  paid  the  expenses  of  litigation  with  a 
certain  proud  and  bitter  stubbornness  which  refused  to  acknowledge 
defeat  or  admit  that  they  were  fighting  without  an  object.  Their  suit  for 
ejectment  against  the  Ophir  Company  was  set  for  trial  on  the  21st  of  June, 
1865,^  and  after  thirteen  days  had  been  consumed  in  laying  the  facts  of 
the  case  before  the  jury  that  body  of  arbiters  disagreed  hopelessly,  and  a 
new  trial  was  ordered  to  begin  after  a  recruiting  interval  of  seven  days.* 
The  result  of  this  repeated  trial  proved  beyond  question  the  wisdom  of 
the  compromise  between  the  Chollar  and  Potosi  companies,  for  under 
existing  conditions  it  was  not  likely  that  a  jury  could  be  impaneled  which 
would  agree  upon  a  verdict  in  any  mining  suit  of  importance.  The  scene 
in  court,  as  sketched  by  a  writer  in  the  Territorial  Enterprise  (July  14, 
1865),  is  worth  preserving.  "  There  is  always  a  crowd  in  front  of  the  court- 
house discussing  the  merits  of  the  case,  while  those  more  immediately 

'  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  November  5, 1864. 

« Ibid.,  November  12,  19,  26,  1864. 

^  Ibid.,  February  18, 25, 1365. 

■*  Eeport  of  United  States  Commissioner,  J.  Koss  Browne,  1866,  p.  108. 

»  First  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  6,  p.  225. 

« Ibid.,  Book  6,  p.  235. 


176  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

interested  stand  hour  after  hour  in  the  court-room,  ahnost  breath- 
lessly earnest  in  their  attention  to  the  evidence  of  the  witnesses  and  the 
rulings  of  the  court.  Fortune  or  ruin  are  the  stakes.^  Glances  of  tri- 
umph give  place  to  scowls  of  dejection,  and  these  in  turn  to  significant 
smiles  of  exultation  as  the  case  goes  on,  and  the  balance  wavers  this  way 
or  that.  Keen  eyes  and  meaning  looks  are  bent  upon  the  jury,  and  no 
emotion  visible  upon  the  face  of  any  one  of  them  passes  unmarked.  It  is 
like  some  desperate  gambling  game.  Participants  sit  watching  every  move 
with  eyes  as  keen  as  those  of  a  lynx  and  as  angry  as  those  of  an  enraged 
tiger.  Again  and  again  the  character  and  antecedents  of  every  juryman 
are  carefully  dissected  and  weighed.  No  stone  is  left  unturned  by  either 
side  to  secure  a  verdict,  and  at  last,  perhaps,  the  jury  will  disagree,  and 
all  the  watching  and  working  must  be  again  resumed."^  The  surmise  was 
correct.  After  a  long  deliberation,  enlivened  by  humorous  antics,  as  an 
observer  declared,^  the  jury  were  discharged  on  the  22d  of  July  by  Judge 
Burbank,* — six  holding  out  for  the  plaintiff  and  six  for  the  defendant.* 
"What  is  to  be  done  next?"  was  a  pertinent  query. 

Certain  shareholders  of  the  Ophir  Company  answered  it  satisfactorily 
by  buying  up  quietly  a  controlling  interest  in  the  Burning  Moscow  shares,^ 
which,  after  this  last  flicker  of  excitement,  fell  to  |5  per  foot.^  There 
was,  however,  an  assessment  of  $15  per  foot*  due  on  the  stock  so  pur- 
chased, 2,724  shares,  which  the  buyers  were  naturally  reluctant  to  pay ; 
but  the  board  of  directors  were  determined  to  enforce  its  collection,  and 
advertised  the  sale  of  the  shares  in  question  on  the  18th  of  October  upon 
the  ground  of  non-payment  of  the  assessment.  On  the  afternoon  pre- 
ceding the  day  of  sale  the  holders  of  this  stock  went  to  the  office  of  the 
Burning  Moscow  Company  to  secure  its  transfer  to  one  Frederic  Collier. 
The  secretary  of  the  company  refused  to  make  the  transfer  until  the 
assessment  was  paid,  and  the  holders  applied  on  the  next  morning  to 
Judge  E.  D.  Sawyer  for  an  injunction,  restraining  the  Moscow  Company 
from  selling  their  stock.     It  so  happened  that  the  18th  of  October  was 

'  A  curious  instance  of  tbe  infatuation  of  contesting  claimants. 

'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  14,  1865.  '  Ibid.,  July  22, 1865. 

■•  Ibid.,  July  23, 1865.  '  First  District  Court  Minutes,  Book  6,  pp.  244, 255. 

•5  Sacramento  Union,  November  8,  1865.  '  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  September  30,  1865. 

8  Called  September  1,  1865;  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  September  30.  1865. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION. 


177 


a  general  judicial  election  day,  and  consequently  no  injunction  could  be 
issued,  nor  had  the  sheriff  power  to  serve  papers.'  The  advertised  sale 
took  place  accordingly,  without  opposition,  and  as  there  were  no  other 
bidders  the  stock  was  bought  in  for  a  trifling  sum  by  the  Secretary  of  the 
Moscow  Company.  On  the  following  day  the  contesting  shareholders 
obtained  an  injunction  restraining  the  secretary  of  the  Moscow  Company 
from  transferring  the  stock  in  dispute  to  third  parties  until  the  legality  of 
the  assessment  sale  should  be  decided.  After  some  days  of  parley  the 
contest  was  ended  by  a  compromise.  The  Ophir  Company  agreed  to  sur- 
render to  the  Moscow  Company  the  2,724  shares  of  stock  purchased  on 
its  account,  and  to  give  besides  the  sum  of  $7,500  in  return  for  the  section 
of  the  Moscow  ledge  which  had  been  contested  for  during  the  past  four 
years.  To  obtain  possession  of  this  section,  800  feet  in  length,  nearly 
11,000,000  had  been  spent,  but  it  was  finally  purchased  by  the  Ophir 
Company  at  a  cost,  as  was  estimated,  of  about  |70,000,  while  its  market 
value  at  the  time  was  only  $50,000.  No  further  commentary  is  needed  to 
disclose  the  folly  of  the  laws  which  allowed  a  locator  to  follow  the  dips, 
spurs,  and  angles, of  his  ledge  anywhere. 

The  case  of  the  Ophir  vs.  the  Burning  Moscow  is  merely  a  notable 
and  typical  example  of  its  class.  The  number  of  suits  begun  in  the  first 
district  court  prior  to  1867,  in  which  the  leading  mining  companies  were 
involved,  is  viz  :^ 


NAME  OF  MINE. 

Suits  in  which 

company  was 
plaintifT. 

Suits  in  which 
company  was 
defendant. 

TOTAL. 

28 

24 

22 

20 

18 

7 

7 

12 

11 

9 

8 

2 

9 
8 
7 
7 
6 
10 
8 
3 
4 
4 
5 
7 

37 
32 
29 
27 
23 
17 
15 
15 
15 
13 
13 
9 

Tellow  Jacket  Mining  Company 

Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company 

Overman  Company 

Potosi  Company 

Crown  Point  Company 

Bullion  Company 

Hale  &  Norcrosa  Company  _ 

168 

77 

245 

'  Law  in  force  in  State  of  California  until  amended  in  1880  by  Leeislature. 
12   H  c 


*  District  Court  Eeoords. 


178  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Of  the  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  suits  in  which  these  twelve  com- 
panies appear  as  plaintiffs  by  far  the  larger  part  were  actions  of  ejectment 
brought  to  dispossess  "jumpers"  or  to  quiet  title.  If  other  companies  in 
the  district  were  less  harassed  it  was  simply  because  they  had  developed 
nothing  worth  wrangling  for  and  not  because  their  rights  were  less  ques- 
tionable. In  fact,  the  titles  of  the  twelve  companies  named  were  certainly 
better  than  the  average,  as  the  claims  were  of  recognized  value,  and  the 
trustees  made  unusual  exertions  to  secure  the  most  perfect  titles  possible. 

Yet  the  mining  laws  enacted  at  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  were  not 
more  imperfect  than  the  body  of  district  laws,  and  their  requirements 
were  as  carefully  observed  as  was  usual.  In  face,  therefore,  of  such  an 
exhibit  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  editor  of  one  of  the  most  conserva- 
tive and  influential  journals  on  the  Pacific  coast  is  surely  justified:  "No 
system  can  well  be  worse  than  that  of  local  resolutions  adopted  by  miners' 
meetings."^  This  condemnation  is  the  more  worthy  of  note  because  these 
same  district  laws  have  been  absurdly  lauded  as  suited  to  the  needs  of  the 
time  and  the  genius  of  the  American  people.  Such  a  glorification  is  sheer 
folly.  The  district  laws  were  vague,  inadequate,  and  blundering.  They 
were  unjust  to  the  working  miner,  whose  interests  they  should  have 
protected,  and  ignorantly  or  purposely  favored  the  speculator  and  the 
sluggard.  The  centuries  of  mining  experience  in  Spanish-America  were 
ignored  and  the  common  law  practice  contravened  without  cause.  Instead 
of  being  adapted  to  the  genius  of  the  American  people  they  were  a  clog 
to  its  expansion  from  the  outset,  and  any  triumph  of  mining  industry  is 
in  spite  of  them  and  not  by  their  aid.  They  should  have  been  canceled 
at  the  earliest  possible  moment  by  a  well  framed  National  or  State  code, 
but  Congress  was  inactive  and  the  Legislature  of  Nevada  preferred  to 
patch  up  the  worthless  system  rather  than  to  supply  a  fitting  substitute. 

Some  of  the  more  evident  needs  of  the  mining  district  had  been 
recognized  in  Territorial  Acts.  To  confirm  existing  titles  a  statute  of 
limitations  was  passed  in  1861,  providing  that  no  action  for  the  recovery 
of  mining  claims  should  be  maintained  unless  it  should  appear  that  the 
plaintiff  or  his  assigns  were  seized  or  possessed  of  the  mining  claim  in 


'  San  Francisco  Alta-California,  February  16,  1867. 


INTERMINABLE  LITIGATION,  179 

question  two  years ^  before  the  commencement  of  such  action.^  As  this 
provision  did  not  estop  claimants  from  bringing  suits  against  corporations 
organized  outside  of  the  Territory  of  Nevada,  little  relief  was  derived  from 
it  by  the  companies  holding  mines  on  the  Comstock  Lode,  most  of  whom 
had  been  organized  in  California,  and  its  immediate  effort  was  probably  to 
swell  the  number  of  suits  affecting  mining  companies  in  the  First  District 
Court  to  217.  The  necessity  for  a  more  general  protection  was  fully  dem- 
onstrated in  later  years  when  bonanzas  were  developed  in  unproductive 
claims.  Then  a  troop  of  contestants  who  had  lain  hidden  like  the  dragon 
teeth  of  fable  started  up  in  battle  array  and  began  to  attack  the  men  who 
had  spent  fortunes  in  piercing  the  barren  lode.  But  it  was  not  until  Feb- 
ruary, 1879,*  that  corporations  and  citizens  of  other  States  were  formally 
declared  to  be  entitled  to  all  the  privileges  and  immunities  of  Nevada 
corporations  and  citizens,* 

A  more  useful  provision  was  the  act  passed  in  1862  regulating  the 
conveyance  of  mining  claims,  which  should  thereafter  require  the  same 
formalities  and  be  subject  to  the  same  rules  of  construction  as  the  trans- 
fers and  conveyances  of  other  real  estate.*  Such  a  law  was  most  urgently 
needed,  but  it  was  an  irreparable  misfortune  that  it  had  not  been  operative 
during  the  two  preceding  years,  for  the  evil  results  of  the  loose  convey- 
ancing by  parol  transfer  and  otherwise  were  often  beyond  remedy,  and 
the  act  of  1862  was,  in  so  far,  merely  locking  the  stable  door  after  the 
horse  had  been  stolen. 

These  measures  of  relief  were  confessedly  insufficient.  No  title  to 
the  mineral  lands  of  the  district  could  be  conveyed  by  Territorial  or  State 
legislation.    The  Comstock  Lode  companies  held  their  mines  therefore  by 

'Statutes  of  Nevada  Territory,  1861,  p.  27.     Statutes  of  Nevada,  1867;  re-enactment  of  this  provision. 

'  Amended  by  act  of  the  State  Legislature,  February  27,  1869,  substituting  the  word  "  five  "  for  "  two  ; " 
Statutes,  1869,  p.  95. 

3  Statutes  of  Nevada,  1879. 

■*  Eight  suits  were  filed  against  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  in  Nevada,  during  the  year 
1878,  six  of  which  were  decided  during  the  year  in  favor  of  the  company,  and  two  were  still  pending  at  its 
close. — (Annual  Report  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1878,  pp.  6-8. )  Yet,  whenever  any  claims  of 
pretended  original  locators  had  any  show  of  justice,  suitable  compensation  was  made  by  Mr.  John  W.  Mackey, 
individually,  who  filed  with  the  County  Recorder,  December  9,  1877,  quit-claim  deeds  in  full  for  his  purchases 
to  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company  and  the  California  Mining  Company  for  the  nominal  sum  of  $1 
each. — (Territorial  Enterprise,  December  9,  1877 ;  George  R.  Wells,  Trustee,  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining 
Company,  1878.) 

'Statutes  of  Nevada  Territory,  1862. 


180  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

tacit  consent  of  the  nation,  or  possessory  title  merely,  until  1866,  when 
the  first  general  mining  law  was  enacted  by  Congress.^  By  this  act  mine 
holders  were  confirmed  in  their  possession  acquired  under  the  district 
laws  and  permitted  to  acquire  a  certified  title  by  patent  from  the  United 
States.  In  so  far  the  law  was  most  desirable,  but  it  fell  far  short  of  being 
the  complete  code  which  should  have  been  adopted,  for  prospectors  were 
still  permitted  to  organize  districts,  elect  officers,  and  parcel  off  the  min- 
eral lands  of  the  nation  with  inexperienced  hands.  The  extent  of  the 
claim  which  could  be  located  by  one  person  or  association  of  persons  was 
limited,  it  is  true,  but  the  restriction  could  readily  be  evaded.  There  was 
no  guarantee  of  the  character  or  competence  of  the  district  recorder,  and 
he  was  responsible  to  no  recognized  authority,  unless  the  shifting,  care- 
less body  which  elected  him  can  be  so  termed.  Furthermore,  the  litigious 
provision  of  the  district  laws  which  allowed  a  locator  to  follow  the  dip  of 
his  lode  indefinitely  and  granted  him  the  ownership  of  all  its  spurs  and 
angles  was  still  left  operative,  and  this  most  objectionable  infringement 
of  the  rights  naturally  acquired  by  locators  under  the  common  law  was 
thus  strangely  countenanced.  "  If  we  were  to  give  laws  to  a  nursery," 
wrote  Goldsmith,  half  seriously  justifying  the  ball-room  code  of  Beau 
Nash,  "we  should  give  them  childish  laws;"  but  the  analogy  must  not 
be  misinterpreted.  Clear,  just,  and  simple  laws  may  be  childish  in  the 
sense  that  even  children  can  comprehend  them,  but  it  by  no  means 
follows  that  children  would  be  able  to  frame  them;  yet  it  would  be 
nearly  as  sensible  to  allow  children  to  legislate  for  their  own  government 
as  to  permit  uneducated  miners  of  limited  experience  to  parcel  out  the 
mineral  lands  of  the  country  and  then  to  compound  their  district  regula- 
tions into  a  code  of  universal  application.^ 

'  An  Act  granting  the  right  of  way  to  ditch  and  canal  owners  over  the  public  lands,  and  for  other  pur- 
poses.    Approved  Jaly  26,  1866.      U.  S.  Stat.,  vol.  14,  p.  221. 

*  The  Aot  to  promote  the  development  of  the  mining  resources  of  the  United  States,  approved  May  10, 1872, 
was  carefully  drawn,  and  contains  important  amendments  and  additions  to  the  Act  of  1866.  Yet  it  is  justly 
criticised  as  still  permitting  the  miners  of  any  district  to  enact  laws  governing  the  location  and  working  of 
mining  claims,  under  certain  limitations,  and  to  intrust  Ihe  duty  of  record  and  supervision  to  their  own  appoint- 
ees, except  when  otherwise  provided  by  State  or  Territorial  legislation. — (Act  approved  May  10,  1872,  Sec.  5.) 
The  litigious  provision  allowing  locators  to  follow  the  dip  of  a  lode  indefinitely  was  also  retained. — (Aot  approved 
May  10,  1872,  Sec.  3.     U.  S.  Stat.,  vol.  17,  p.  91.) 


CHAPTER  IX. 
INDUSTRIAL  CONFLICTS. 

The  resignation  of  the  Territorial  bench  took  place  during  a  period 
of  general  depression  of  mining  interests  and  values  in  the  Washoe 
district.  The  rich  superficial  deposits  of  the  Gould  &  Curry,  Ophir,  and 
Savage  mines  had  begun  to  show  plain  indications  of  exhaustion,  and  the 
best-apprised  stockholders  endeavored  to  dispose  of  their  shares  quietly 
while  their  market  value  was  only  slightly  impaired;  but  the  facts  could 
not  be  concealed  and  the  inclination  to  sell  became  general.  More  shares 
were  thrown  on  the  market  than  could  be  taken  up  by  the  available  spec- 
ulative capital,  and  the  inevitable  result  was  that  the  prices  of  all  stocks, 
good  and  poor,  fell  with  an  irresistible  impulse.  Thousands  of  share- 
holders were  impoverished  and  hundreds  were  ruined.  Gould  &  Curry 
mining  stock,  which  on  the  1st  of  July,  1863,  was  quoted  at  $6,300,  and 
on  April  1,  1864,  was  still  worth  $4,550  per  foot,  fell  in  four  months  to 
$900  per  foot^  (quotation  July  30,  1864.) ;  Ophir  stock  fell  from  $1,580 
per  foot  on  April  1st  to  $300  on  September  20,  1864,  and  the  shrinkage  in 
the  value  of  Savage  stock  was  equally  large,  as  it  was  quoted  at  $2,600 
per  foot  April  1st,  and  at  $750  per  foot  July  30, 1864."  The  shares  in  other 
productive  mines  suffered  a  corresponding  decline,  and  wild-cat  stocks  fell 
so  low  that  they  could  not  be  resurrected.. 

The  great  majority  of  the  shares  were  held  in  California,  and  the 
effects  of  the  depression  were,  of  course,  visible  in  San  Francisco;  but  it 
was  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  mines  that  the  prostration  of  industry 
and  general  suffering  were  most  strongly  marked.  Work  on  many  claims 
was  virtually  abandoned;  miners  were  thrown  out  of  employment,  and 
the  burden  upon  the  productive  mines  even  was  felt  to  be  so  heavy  that 

1  Weekly  Stock  Circular,  July,  1863,  April,  July,  1864.  '  Gold  Hill  News,  November  15,  1864. 

(181) 


182  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

there  was  a  general  call  for  the  reduction  of  expenses.  Pressed  by  this 
demand  the  superintendents  of  the  different  mines  began  to  look  after 
possible  leaks  in  their  revenues  more  sharply.  Useless  employes  were 
dismissed,  the  timber  and  fuel  accounts  were  more  closely  scrutinized, 
and  finally  a  general  though  quiet  movement  was  made  to  bring  about 
the  reduction  of  wages. 

This  last  proposition,  while  yet  only  broached  tentatively,  excited  a 
formidable  and  active  opposition,  for  the  miners  of  the  district  at  once 
arrayed  themselves  against  the  measure.  They  were  an  orderly,  quiet, 
hard-working  class  as  a  rule,  but  they  clung  tenaciously  to  an  arbitrary 
standard  of  compensation,  and  were  as  ready  to  fight  for  it  as  if  it  had 
been  an  inalienable  right,  confirmed  by  divine  law  and  custom  from  time 
immemorial.  Most  of  them  had  suffered  directly  from  the  shrinkage  in 
stock  values,  as  nearly  all  were  small  holders  of  shares,  and  they  recog- 
nized the  need  of  economy  in  working  the  mines  during  the  period  of 
depression  at  least,  but  they  wished  the  saving  to  be  made  in  some  other 
way,  not  clearly  indicated,  than  in  the  reduction  of  wages.  They  pre- 
ferred to  see  claims  abandoned,  mines  deserted,  and  workmen  everywhere 
discharged  rather  than  consent  to  this  proposition.  It  is  true  that  they 
offered  some  defense  for  their  apparently  blind  obstinacy.  They  contended 
that  any  departure  from  the  standard  was  fatal  to  their  principle  of  a 
"fair  day's  wages  for  a  fair  day's  work."  They  had  estimated  that  |4 
per  day,  or  shift,  was  this  proper  compensation,  and  this  estimate  had 
been  tacitly  admitted  during  the  past  four  years  in  the  Washoe  district. 
If  the  rate  of  wages  was  reduced  to  |3.50  per  day,  as  was  proposed,  they 
thought  it  unlikely  that  it  would  ever  revert  to  the  former  standard,  and 
believed  that  this  comparatively  small  reduction  would  be  an  entering 
wedge  to  a  series  of  clippings.  "If  $3.50,  why  not  |3,  $2.50,  $2,  or  even 
$1?"  they  said.  "Our  only  protection  is  in  warding  off  the  first  blow. 
We  can  better  afford  to  have  half  our  force  leave  the  district  and  seek 
new  fields  of  labor  than  to  run  the  risk  of  endangering  the  future  welfare 
of  all."  So  strong  was  this  feeling  that  the  discharged  miners  preferred 
to  leave  the  district  even,  or  to  live  on  their  scanty  savings,  or  from  hand 
to  mouth,  rather  than  to  accept  a  diminished  rate  of  pay. 


INDUSTEIAL  CONFLICTS.  183 

Whenever  the  miners'  principle  of  a  fair  day's  wages  for  a  fair  day's 
work  is  reconciled  with  the  operation  of  the  economic  law  of  supply  and 
demand  the  insoluble  labor  problem  will  be  solved.  The  miners  on  the 
Comstock  cut  the  Gordian  knot  by  arbitrarily  establishing  a  minimum 
rate  of  wages,  destroying,  of  course,  the  normal  relation  between  the 
variables  by  this  introduction  of  a  constant  quantity.  They  oifered  no 
arguments  except  their  personal  opinions  to  prove  that  the  sum  of  |4 
was  more  nearly  a  "fair  day's  wages"  than  |3.50  or  $3,  but  they  made 
their  position  impregnable  by  means  more  cogent  than  logic  or  economic 
principles.  Their  standard  was  set,  and  economic  arguments  have  bat- 
tered it  for  twenty  years  in  vain. 

On  the  30th  of  May,  1863,  a  company  of  from  300  to  400  miners  had 
assembled  in  Virginia  City  and  passed  resolutions,  informally,  "  that  the 
organization  of  a  Miners'  Protective  Association  be  forthwith  commenced," 
and  "that  lists  be  prepared  and  kept  open  one  week.  The  objects  of  the  pro- 
posed association  were  averred  to  be  the  "securance  to  practical  miners  of  a 
good  remuneration  for  their  toil,  the  exposure  and  defeat  of  speculative 
plans  affecting  their  interests  injuriously,  and  the  providing  of  aid  and  com- 
fort for  them  in  times  of  sickness  and  adversity."^  The  organization  was 
not  completed,  as  the  times  were  prosperous  and  the  need  for  its  existence 
not  generally  recognized;  but  the  movement  was  an  indication  of  a  prevail- 
ing sentiment  which  would  be  formidable  if  rendered  active. 

For  several  months  the  temper  of  the  miners  was  not  tried.  Con- 
scious of  their  collective  strength,  even  without  organization,  they  were 
indolent  in  its  exercise,  and  overlooked  petty  attacks  upon  their  standard 
of  wages  with  contemptuous  patience.  If  they  struck  back  at  all  it  was 
with  the  good-humored  butfet  of  a  tame  bear  teased  by  children  at  play, 
showing  his  teeth  just  sufficiently  to  make  the  warning  effective.  So, 
when  the  pay  of  miners  in  the  Uncle  Sam  mine  was  reduced  from  |4  to 
$3.50  per  day,  and  the  new  foreman,  John  Trembath,  a  stalwart  Cornish- 
man,  was  believed  by  the  miners  to  have  been  an  active  agent  in  effecting 
the  change,  a  resolute  party  seized  upon  him  (March  19,  1864)  in  one  of 
the  lower  levels  of  the  mine  and  bound  him  hand  and  foot  in  spite  of  his 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  31, 1863. 


184  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

struggles.^  Then  they  wound  a  coil  of  rope  round  him  till  he  looked,  in 
their  eyes,  "like  an  Egyptian  mummy,"  and  lashed  him  firmly  to  the 
main  hoisting-cable  of  the  shaft.  A  label  was  fastened  to  his  body,  read- 
ing, "Dump  this  pile  of  waste  dirt  from  Cornwall,"  and  the  signal  was 
given  to  hoist  and  lower  him  twice.  It  was  a  fresh  sensation,  undoubt- 
edly, to  be  jerked  up  suddenly  from  the  midst  of  a  lighted  ring  of  broadly- 
jeering  faces  into  the  dark  pit  of  the  shaft,  there  to  bump  about,  help- 
lessly dangling  at  the  end  of  an  elastic  hemp  rope ;  but  Trembath  was  never- 
theless well  pleased  when  he  was  hoisted  to  the  surface,  dumped,  and 
unbound.  He  denied  that  he  was  in  any  way  instrumental  in  bringing 
about  the  reduction  of  wages — probably  with  truth,  as  miners  are  com- 
monly suspicious  of  novelties,  and  might  have  readily  mistaken  the  con- 
comitant changes  of  foreman  and  wages  for  the  directly-related  changes 
of  cause  and  effect.  Innocent  or  not,  he  served  as  a  convenient  'scape- 
goat for  the  managers  of  the  Uncle  Sam  Company,  and  the  insubordina- 
tion of  the  miners  was  passed  over  without  notice.  Still  the  warning  was 
not  heeded,  and  as  stocks  fell  during  the  early  summer,  the  disposition  to 
reduce  expenses  by  cutting  down  wages  was  daily  more  manifest.  Men 
were  engaged  quietly  at  rates  below  the  old  standards,  and  the  leaders 
among  the  miners,  seeing  that  a  general  reduction  was  impending,  resolved 
to  act  promptly.  The  alarm  was  given  and  the  sluggish  body  was  stirred 
to  action  at  once.  On  the  evening  of  July  31,  1864,  a  long  procession 
was  formed,  including  in  its  ranks  nearly  all  the  miners  and  mill-hands 
of  the  district,  and  marched  through  the  streets  of  Virginia  City  and  Gold 
Hill,  headed  by  a  band  of  music  playing  all  the  defiant  airs  in  their  score- 
books.'  The  column  swayed  from  side  to  side,  opening  and  closing  gaps 
as  the  sections  moved  on,  clearing  a  broad  way  for  their  passage.  The 
watchword  ran  along  the  line,  "Four  dollars  a  day!"  shouted  by  stento- 
rian lungs  every  moment,  with  a  continual  chorus  of  vociferous  cheers: 
There  was  no  rioting,  no  threatening  turbulence,  no  bitterness  of  feeling 
apparent.  The  men  joked,  laughed,  and  shouted,  fearing  and  meeting  no 
opposition.     In  front  of  the  International  Hotel  the  column  halted,  filling 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  March  22,  1864  ;  Gold  Hill  News,  March  21,  1864. 
s  Gold  Hill  News,  August  1, 1864. 


INDUSTEIAL  CONFLICTS.  185 

the  street  in  front  of  the  balcony  with  its  thronging  mass.  In  response  to 
repeated  calls  a  popular  speaker,  Hon.  Frank  Tilford,  addressed  the  crowd 
from  the  balcony  of  the  hotel,  calling  upon  them  to  act  with  calmness  and 
forbearance ;  for  he  recognized  beneath  the  noisy  good  humor  of  the  men 
a  fixed  determination  to  enforce  their  demands  at  all  hazards.  In  this 
determination  he  sympathized,  apparently,  but  endeavored  to  content 
them  with  florid  rhetorical  images  in  place  of  flesh-and-blood  opponents. 
"To  reduce  wages,"  he  said,  "  is  to  drive  to  despair  and  death  the  miner 
and  his  family.  It  cannot  and  must  not  be.  By  the  law  of  ancient 
Rome  a  convicted  traitor  was  hurled  from  the  Tarpeian  rock.  Let  the 
man  who  in  this  crisis  advocates  a  reduction  of  miners'  wages  be  girdled 
with  burning  faggots  and  receive  the  fate  of  the  Roman  felon  !"^  Though 
it  was  not  clearly  apparent  to  every  one  present  that  despair  and  death 
were  included  in  the  proposed  reduction  of  50  cents,  no  one  cared  to  win 
a  girdle  of  faggots  or  its  Washoe  substitute  by  confuting  the  assertion. 

After  the  customary  sacrifice  of  speeches  the  mass-meeting  adjourned 
by  an  informal  scattering  of  its  members;  but  on  the  next  morning 
(August  1,  1864)  an  orderly  body  of  many  hundred  men  visited  the  mines 
and  mills  and  made  a  formal  appeal  for  uniform  wages  of  |4  per  day.  As 
there  was  no  definite  plan  of  cooperation  in  denying  this  demand,  open 
resistance  was  judged  to  be  futile  and  dangerous,  and  the  desired  conces- 
sion was  made  by  the  representatives  of  all  the  mine  and  mill  companies 
without  exception,  it  is  said.^  Five  days  later,  on  the  evening  of  August 
6th,  the  miners  again  met  in  a  body  and  completed  the  organization  of  a 
Miners'  League.^  A  president,  vice-president,  secretary,  treasurer,  and 
board  of  seven  trustees  were  elected,  and  a  constitution  and  by-laws  of  the 
"Miners'  League  of  Storey  County"  adopted.  By  the  laws  of  this  society 
every  member  was  required  to  pledge  his  word  of  honor  "never  to  work  in 
the  county  of  Storey  for  less  than  $4.  per  day  in  gold  and  silver  coin." 
Every  member  must  help  his  fellow  members  in  preference  to  outsiders, 
and  give  immediate  information  to  the  secretary  of  the  league  upon  learn- 
ing that  men  are  at  work  in  the  county  of  Storey  for  less  than  |4  per 
day.     Upon  receipt  of  this  information  "the  secretary  shall  notify  the 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  2,  1864.        =  Gold  Hill  News,  August  2,  1864.         ^  jji^;.^  August  8,  1864. 


186  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

president  of  the  fact,  the  president  shall  call  a  special  meeting  of  trustees, 
the  trustees  shall  remonstrate  with  the  employers,  and  if  such  remon- 
trance  is  disregarded  the  president  shall  be  required  to  call  out  the  entire 
force  of  the  league" — a  sufficiently  expressive  conclusion. 

Although  the  concession  of  a  uniform  rate  of  |4  per  day  had  been 
made,  yet  it  was  regarded  by  some  of  the  mining  companies  at  least  as  a 
temporary  bargain,  wrung  from  them  under  protest,  and  concluded  with 
certain  mental  reservations.  When  the  excitement  had  subsided  unem- 
ployed miners  were  quietly  engaged  as  before,  under  secret  agreements, 
and  an  opposition  which  could  not  be  confronted  was  thus  insidiously 
sapped.  The  representative  journals  of  the  district — the  Virginia  City 
Territorial  Enterprise  and  the  Gold  Hill  Daily  News — took  part  with  the 
miners  warmly ,'^  making  common  cause  against  the  Californian  capitalists, 
who,  in  the  temper  of  the  day,  were  regarded  as  aliens  and  avaricious 
money-lenders.  It  was  forgotten  for  the  moment  that  the  mines  were 
developed  with  alien  capital,  and  that  the  prosperity  of  the  district  was 
largely  due  to  the  sanguine  investors,  who  drew  unremittingly  from  their 
purses  to  tide  over  periods  of  depression.  The  people  of  the  district, 
with  natural  selfishness,  were  disposed  to  throw  the  whole  burden  of  the 
hard  times  upon  the  shoulders  of  others,  and  were  inclined  to  grumble  if 
the  Californians  refused  to  carry  the  over-weighted  load. 

This  bit  of  human  nature  was  justified  on  the  plea  that  there  was  no 
sufficient  reason  for  the  reduction  of  wages,  as  the  value  of  the  mines 
was  never  intrinsically  greater  than  during  that  summer  of  1864,  and  the 
export  of  bullion  from  Nevada  was  far  larger  than  at  any  former  period. 
If,  in  face  of  these  facts,  a  contraction  of  expenses  was  necessary  it  should 
be  brought  about  by  economical  management,  careful  milling,  and  incor- 
ruptible honesty.  These  expedients,  it  was  urged,  would  injure  only 
knaves  and  drones,  and  when  these  were  shown  to  be  insufficient,  it 
would  be  time  to  consider  the  question  of  resorting  to  a  reduction  of 
wages.  This  was  in  accord  with  their  "principle"  that  any  change  affect- 
ing the  condition  of  the  laboring  class  prejudicially  should  be  postponed 
until  it  became  unavoidable. 


'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  X6, 1864  ;  Editorial ;  Gold  Hill  News,  September  21, 1864 ;  Editorial. 


ENDUSTEIAL  CONFLICTS.  187 

The  point  at  issue  was  the  determination  of  this  last  period.  The 
leading  stockholders  in  the  several  companies  maintained  the  undeniable 
fact  that  the  actual  export  of  bullion  was  no  criterion  of  the  real  value 
of  the  mines,  if  the  speedy  exhaustion  of  the  known  ore-deposits  was 
foreseen.  It  was  this  prospect  of  impending  exhaustion  which  had 
caused  the  sudden  fall  in  the  prices  of  stocks,  and  capital  could  not  be 
made  less  timorous  by  ill-supported  assertions  of  prosperity.  A  reduction 
of  expenses  was  urgently  demanded  as  the  only  available  means  of  uphold- 
ing even  the  ruling  low  prices  of  mining  stocks  and  providing  for  the 
further  developing  of  the  mines.  In  curtailing  expenses  a  rate  of  wages 
which  was  allowable  in  bonanza  times  could  not  be  maintained  in  a  season 
of  borrasca.  A  reduction  of  wages,  therefore,  was  an  integral  part  of  the 
plan  of  reduction  which  was  being  carried  into  effect,  and  this  measure 
could  be  delayed  no  longer. 

Here  was  an  irreconcilable  conflict  of  opinions  whose  issue  it  was  not 
difficult  to  predict.  An  arbitrary  standard  of  wages  could  only  be  main- 
tained by  force.  It  was  useless  to  attempt  to  constrain  the  expenditure  of 
capital  in  a  period  of  depression,  though  this  can  sometimes  be  done  in  a 
time  of  prosperity,  when  a  contest  may  imperil  otherwise  certain  profits, 
and  reckless  declarations  of  the  independence  of  labor  were  simply  unten- 
able. "If  mines,"  wrote  the  editor  of  the  Territorial  Enterprise,  August 
16,  1864,  "cannot  afford  to  pay  |4  a  day  to  miners,  let  them  lie  still; 
for  they  will  do  the  Territory  little  good  and  their  stockholders  less." 
Such  an  assertion  was,  of  course,  simply  absurd,  but  utterances  like 
these,  supported  by  the  consciousness  of  the  real  weakness  of  their  posi- 
tion except  when  confronting  openly  declared  opposition,  finally  induced 
the  miners  to  hazard  a  rash  step.^  A  meeting  of  the  league  was  held  on 
September  18th,  in  the  district  court-room  at  Virginia  City,  and  a  resolu- 
tion passed  authorizing  a  committee  to  notify  the  employes  of  the  mills  and 
mines  of  Storey  County  that  no  persons  except  members  of  the  league 
should  be  permitted  to  labor  in  the  mills  and  mines  after  Tuesday,  Sep- 
tember 27th,  instant.^  In  accordance  with  this  vote  the  committee  of  three 
appointed  pubhshed  notices  and  posted  them  in  conspicuous  places ;  but 

>  Gold  Hill  News,  September  19,  1864.  =  Ibid.,  September  W,  1864. 


188  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

it  was  easier  to  paste  up  notices  than  to  carry  their  injunctions  into  effect. 
A  considerable  proportion  of  the  miners  of  the  district  did  not  belong  to 
the  league,  and  were  not  disposed  to  be  bullied  into  joining  that  body, 
while  strongly,  if  covertly,  supported  as  they  were  by  the  superintendents 
of  the  several  companies.  The  notice  was  somewhat  too  peremptory  also 
to  suit  a  general  sense  of  justice  and  the  privileges  of  personal  independ- 
ence, which  the  members  of  the  league  were  never  willing  to  disregard 
absolutely ;  yet  it  appeared  probable,  at  first,  to  many  lookers-on,  that  the 
dictum  would  be  enforced,  for  the  power  of  the  miners  united  had  been 
recently  displayed.  The  editor  of  the  Gold  Hill  News  wrote  (September 
21st),  with  an  eye  to  the  result  of  the  contest:  "We  admit  that  it  seems  a 
little  hard  that  employers  shall  not  employ  just  whoever  {sic)  they  please 
on  their  own  property,  but  this  is  the  land  of  Washoe,  and  if  labor  isn't 
king  here,  we  really  do  not  know  who  is."  ^ 

This  was  a  little  too  much  even  for  the  strong  stomachs  of  the  league. 
The  rate  of  wages  was  still  nominally  $4  per  day,  and  if  a  lower  price  was 
paid  the  bargains  were  covert.  Probably  a  majority  of  the  miners  out- 
side the  league  were  still  receiving  $4  per  day,  and  they  regarded  the  fees 
of  membership  exacted  by  the  league  as  an  unnecessary  and  unwarrant- 
able tax;  so  they  flatly  refused  to  join  the  league,  and  compulsory  mem- 
bership could  not  be  enforced.  A  special  meeting  of  the  trustees  of  the 
league  was  accordingly  held  on  the  22d  day  of  September,  and  a  resolution 
passed  deliberately  withdrawing  from  their  untenable  position.^  The 
responsibility  for  the  obnoxious  notices  was  shrewdly  thrown  upon  the 
shoulders  of  the  special  committee  of  three,  and  the  trustees  "begged 
leave  to  assure  the  superintendents  and  owners  of  mills  and  mines  that 
no  illegal  action  shall  be  had  whatever,"  and  to  declare  "in  general  that 
the  object  of  the  league  is  to  secure  the  best  interests  of  the  miners  peace- 
ably." The  special  meeting  appointed  for  the  27th  of  September  was 
postponed  until  the  regular  monthly  meeting.  On  the  following  day  the 
Gold  Hill  News  recognized  the  changed  aspect  of  affairs  by  an  equally 
sudden  change  of  base.  "When  the  full  scale  of  prices  is  paid  by  the 
superintendents  it  is  certainly  all  that  can  be  asked  of  them  by  any 

1  Gold  Hill  News  Editorial,  September  28,  1864.  '  Ihid.,  September  23, 1864. 


IITDUSTRIAL  CONFLICTS.  189 

society.  A  step  beyond  that  is  infringing  upon  rights  which  cannot 
under  the  laws  of  the  land  be  invaded.  ^  *  *  -yy-g  remarked  day 
before  yesterday,  in  our  article  on  the  league  movement,  that  Labor  is 
King  in  Washoe.  We  used  a  figurative  expression,  and  will  here  amend 
it.  Labor  is  king  provided  the  king  behaves  himself  and  does  not  tres- 
pass upon  other  vested  rights."  ^  The  absolute  sovereignty  of  September 
21st  had  indeed  become  a  limited  monarchy  on  September  23d,  but  the 
attempt  to  reconcile  the  two  positions  was  an  impossible  feat  which  jour- 
nalists feel  constrained  sometimes  to  attempt  for  the  sake  of  consistency 
and  subscribers. 

The  failure  of  the  prohibitory  notices  proved  a  decided  check  to  the 
assumptions  of  the  league.  It  had  acknowledged  its  powerlessness  to 
prevent  the  engagement  of  non-members  as  laborers  in  the  mines,  and  its 
members  soon  noticed  that  they  were  being  quietly  and  consistently  drop- 
ped, one  by  one,  from  the  list  of  employes,  and  that  their  places  were 
filled  with  miners  who  were  known  to  be  unattached  to  the  league. 
The  very  existence  of  their  body  was  threatened  unless  this  weeding-out 
process  was  stopped,  yet  they  were  powerless  to  resist  it  effectually,  for 
the  superintendents  of  the  mines  had  an  undisputed  right  to  employ  any 
laborers  they  pleased  at  wages  of  $4  per  day,  and  they  were  naturally 
disposed  to  weaken  their  formidable  opponents  as  far  as  possible  and  to 
diminish  the  danger  of  organized  strikes  by  giving  the  preference  in 
engagements  to  men  not  members  of  the  miners'  societies.  They  were 
willing  to  pay  the  full  rate  of  $4  per  day  even  to  such  men,  until  the 
league  was  effectuolly  weakened  and  incapable  of  resenting  a  reduction  of 
wages.  The  league  members,  therefore,  seeing  the  shrinkage  of  their 
relative  power  daily,  began  to  ask  themselves  what  was  to  be  gained  by 
the  maintenance  of  their  organization.  Its  disadvantages  were  evident 
in  the  manifest  black  mark  attached  to  its  membership  by  the  superintend- 
ents and  the  necessity  of  paying  a  regular  monthly  assessment,  which  soon 
appeared  to  be  a  tax  upon  disqualification  for  employment  in  the  mines. 
Many  members  accordingly  ceased  to  pay  their  monthly  dues  and  withdrew 
from  the  organization  in  fact,  if  not  by  express  avowal;  the  monthly  meet- 

1  Gold  Hill  News,  September  23,  1864  ;  Editorial. 


190  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

ings  were  ill  attended,  and  the  once  powerful  society  ceased  to  be  for- 
midable to  any  one.  The  contest,  or  undermining  process  rather,  had 
been  shrewdly  conducted  by  the  superintendents  without  any  avowal  of 
their  ultimate  intention ;  but  finally,  seeing  that  opposition  was  effectually 
prostrated  and  that  the  time  was  ripe  for  the  change,  the  pay  of  the  ordinary 
miners  in  the  leading  mines  in  Virginia  City,  the  Chollar,  Potosi,  Savage,  and 
Gould  &  Curry,  was  reduced  to  a  uniform  basis  of  $3.50  per  day,  in  the  spring 
of  1865.^  The  measure  had  been  so  skillfully  introduced  that  its  enforce- 
ment excited  no  protest  worth  mentioning.  Discontented  miners  left  the 
district,  or  concluded  to  accept  work  at  the  new  rate  as  the  only  remaining 
alternative,  and  thus  a  proposition  which  would  have  entitled  its  mover  to 
a  rhetorical  "girdle  of  faggots"  six  months  before  was  carried  into  effect 
without  a  suggestion  of  martyrdom  or  even  of  burning  its  makers  in  effigy. 
Yet  this  concession  to  the  inevitable  was  not  intended  to  be  final.  The 
miners  did  not  care  to  kick  against  the  pricks,  but  were  not  disposed  to 
concede  the  point  at  issue,  the  right  of  the  superintendents  to  define  the 
rate  of  wages  paid  to  the  different  classes  of  workmen,  for  they  did  not 
forget  that  the  former  standard  of  $4  per  day  was  fixed  by  custom  during 
four  years  and  by  their  authoritative  declaration  on  the  6th  of  August, 
1864.  Still,  though  the  deduction  of  one-eighth  from  their  pay  was  a  con- 
siderable loss  to  men  with  families,  the  change  could  have  been  borne 
without  marked  inconvenience,  and  if  the  Miners'  League  had  established 
the  rate  of  $3.50  per  day  it  would  have  endured  to  the  present  day  (1881) 
without  question. 

Meanwhile,  in  spite  of  the  interminable  litigation,  ignorant  and 
extravagant  wastefulness,  and  conflicts  between  labor  and  capital,  the 
industries  of  the  district  were  persistently  developing.  The  energies  of 
American  mining  enterprise  may  be  ill-directed,  squandered,  and  rebuffed, 
but  they  are  rarely  exhausted  or  finally  foiled.  The  importance  of  a  con- 
venient access  to  the  district  from  the  Pacific  sea-board  was  clearly  real- 
ized, and  not  only  must  the  demands  of  the  growing  cities  on  the  lode  be 
satisfied,  but  the  needs  of  outlying  districts  throughout  Western  Utah, 
which  had  sprung  up  under  the  magic  touch  of  the  miner's  pick,  must 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  23,  1865. 


INDUSTRIAL  CONFLICTS.  191 

also  be  provided  for.  The  influence  of  the  discoveries  of  the  two  Irish 
prospectors  was  already  far  reaching. 

The  two  main  routes  across  the  Sierras  were  through  Johnson's  Pass 
and  Henness  Pass,  entering  Sacramento  by  the  way  of  Placerville  and 
Nevada  City  respectively.  An  extraordinary  change  was  wrought  in  the 
condition  of  both  these  roadways,  especially  in  that  of  the  former.  ,  During 
1861  and  1862  toll-road  grants  were  obtained,  and  a  small  army  of  labor- 
ers was  at  work  on  both  slopes  of  the  range  from  foot  to  summit.^  The 
steepest  grades  were  cut  down  and  smoothed;  gullies  and  ruts  were  filled 
with  compact  layers  of  broken  stones  and  loam;  bordering  rocks  were 
blasted  away  or  rolled  aside,  and  the  narrow,  dangerous,  wretched  trail, 
scarcely  fit  for  the  passage  of  sure-footed  pack-mules,  became  a  broad, 
compact,  well-graded  highway,  which  might  fairly  be  likened  to  an  old 
Roman  road. 

The  stage-coach  ride  across  the  mountains,  which  had  been  a  "tor- 
ture," became  a  pleasure.  As  the  traveler  approached  the  summit  of  the 
range,  new  landscapes  of  wonderful  beauty  met  his  eyes  at  every  turn. 
Swift-falling  streams  broke  in  foam  at  his  feet,  and  the  forest  stretched  its 
protecting  arms  over  his  head  and  filled  the  air  he  breathed  with  fra- 
grance. Below  its  dark-green  mass  lay  the  fresh  turf  of  valleys  studded 
with  daises  and  buttercups,  where  sleek  red  cattle  rested  content,  and 
in  the  heart  of  the  hills  was  outspread  the  deep  waters  of  Lake  Tahoe, 
whose  blue  waves  have  the  many-dimpled  laughter  of  the  sea.  Above 
the  tree-belt  towered  bare  weather-beaten  crags  with  tawny-brown  pinna- 
cles, or  snow-capped  ridges  outlined  sharply,  like  silhouettes,  against  the 
cloudless  sky,  and  far  away,  at  the  verge  of  the  horizon,  the  brown  desert 
plains  and  treeless  ranges,  with  their  fleecy  mantle  of  haze,  were  a  neutral- 
tinted  framework  to  this  memorable  picture. 

The  turning  points  of  the  road  were  broad  platforms  built  up  from 
the  hill-sides  with  outward-curving  base-walls  of  well-joined  rocks.  On 
the  level  surface  of  these  bastions  an  eight-mule  team  could  turn  without 
slacking  their  traces,  and  loaded  wagons  could  pass  one  another  at  all 


'  Sacramento  Union,  August  2,  1862,  May  13, 1867;  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  June  22,  1861,  March  3, 
1877  ;  Comstock  Papers,  No.  19. 


192  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

points  on  the  road  without  diificulty.  When  snow-drifts  blocked  the 
passage  in  winter,  a  well-equipped  party  of  men  and  horses  sallied  from 
every  station  and  cleared  the  way  with  extraordinary  dispatch,  while 
watering  carts,  passing  from  station  to  station,  laid  the  dust  in  summer, 
so  that  the  road  was  like  a  well-kept  avenue  in  a  mountain  park.  Fully 
1500,000  was  expended  upon  this  macadamized  highway  across  the 
Sierras  from  Virginia  City  to  Placerville,  a  distance  of  101  miles  by  road, 
or  about  $5,000  per  mile,  and  the  cost  of  constructing  certain  portions 
of  the  road  was,  of  course,  much  in  excess  of  this  average  estimate,  and 
the  expenses  of  maintenance  were  correspondingly  large.^  From  Straw- 
berry Valley  to  the  West  Summit,  a  distance  of  10  miles,  the  road  was 
cared  for  by  the  toll-gate  grantees.  Swan  &  Co.,  whose  yearly  outlay  was 
from  $2,000  to  $3,000  per  mile,  and  the  expense  of  maintaining  the  high- 
way from  the  West  Summit  into  Lake  Valley  and  thence  over  the  East 
Summit  into  Carson  Valley  was  equally  great.  Snow-drifts,  mountain 
torrents,  the  wheels  of  ponderous  carts,  and  the  hoofs  of  tramping 
mules  were  destructive  agencies  which  were  combated  indefatigably ; 
but  the  toll-road  owners  could  well  afford  to  carry  on  an  expensive 
contest,  for  their  reimbursement  was  ample.  A  toll-gate  was  far  more 
profitable  than  an  ordinary  mine.  The  receipts  of  Swan  &  Co.  were  from 
$40,000  to  $70,000  annually,  and  their  road  only  extended  over  one-tenth 
of  the  distance  between  Placerville  and  Virginia  City.^  The  tolls  paid  for 
the  passage  of  a  four-horse  team  from  Sacramento  to  Virginia  City,  the 
principal  shipping  points,  aggregated  $14.87  J  in  August,  1862,  and  for 
every  additional  animal  an  aggregate  charge  of  about  $1.50  was  imposed.^ 
Upon  the  return  trip  the  tariff  was  sometimes  half-price,  and  at  some 
stations  no  toll  was  exacted.  In  1860-'62  four  and  six-mule  teams  were 
commonly  employed;  but,  as  the  grades  were  made  low  and  the  roads 
improved,  ten,  twelve,  and  even  fourteen  and  sixteen-mule  teams  came 
into  general  use.  They  stretched  along  the  highway  for  miles  in  an 
unbroken  procession,  and  if  a  teamster  by  chance  fell  out  of  line  he  would 
often  be  compelled  to  wait  for  hours  before  he  could  regain  a  place  in 

'  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  June  22,  1861. 

^  Account  Books  of  Swan  &  Company,  Strawbeny  Station. 

'  Sacramento  Union,  August  13,  1862. 


INDUSTEIAL  CONFLICTS.  193 

the  column.  Oxen  were  rarely  used  as  draught  animals,  as  their  motion 
was  too  slow  to  suit  the  sierran  teamsters,  and  horses  could  not  well  endure 
the  labor  and  exposure,  but  mules  answered  the  requirements  perfectly. 
These  sierran  mules  were  not  the  gaunt,  back-sore,  vicious  creatures 
which  infest  some  of  the  Southern  States,  but  sleek,  strong,  well-fed  ani- 
mals, tossing  their  heads  gaily  to  the  accompaniment  of  jingling  bells, 
and  pulling  the  ponderous  wagons  easily  over  the  firm  road  surface. 
The  drivers  were  proud  of  their  teams  and  spared  no  pains  to  keep  them  in 
fine  condition.  The  sweating  mules  were  rubbed  down  carefully  at  night, 
assiduously  curried,  supplied  with  pure  water  in  abundance,  and  fed  on 
the  choicest  oats,  barley,  and  hay.^  In  consequence  of  this  treatment  the 
animals  were  always  vigorous  and  capable  of  dragging  the  extraordinary 
loads  which  were  piled  upon  a  train  of  carts  fastened  to  one  another  by 
the  useful  "  back-action  "  attachment.  The  amount  of  freight  apportioned 
to  every  animal  advanced  from  1,000  to  2,000,  and  even  3,000  pounds — 
a  ten-mule  team  frequently  dragging  from  10  to  15  tons.^  The  number 
of  teams  engaged  increased  even  more  than  the  loads.  The  400  teams 
employed  in  1860  received  an  addition  of  200  in  1861,^  and  in  1862  the 
total  number  was  said  to  be  OSO.*  In  subsequent  years  this  number  was 
nearly  doubled,  and  the  amount  of  freight  transported  across  the  Sierras 
rose  to  scarcely  credible  figures.^  In  1862  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
Company  placed  an  agent  in  Strawbery  Valley,  who  made  an  accurate  list  of 
the  number  of  stages,  stage  passengers  and  other  travelers,  private  convey- 
ances, stock  of  all  kinds,  freight  teams,  and  pounds  of  freight  passing  a 
given  point  on  the  main  road  during  a  period  of  eight  weeks.  The  number 
of  pounds  of  freight  hauled  was  19,386,200,  the  number  of  teams  employed 
was  2,772,  and  the  number  of  horses  and  mules  was  14,652.  The  chief 
engineer  of  the  same  company,  in  his  report  to  the  directors  in  October, 
1862,  estimated  that  43,800  tons  of  freight  were  hauled  over  Johnson's 
Pass  alone  yearly,  which,  at  the  average  price  of  6  cents  per  pound, 

'  Sacramento  Union,  July  15,  1861. 

^  Records  obtained  from  officers  of  the  Teamsters'  Association,  1863-'67. 
'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  12,  1862. 
*Ibid.,  October  2,  1862;  Carson  City  Silver  Age,  August  17,  1862. 
^  Sacramento  Union,  November  25,  1863  ;  Editorial. 
13   H  c 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

would  make  the  total  freightage  expense  $5,256,000.  His  calculation  was 
apparently  based  on  the  returns  of  the  inspecting  agent,  and  was  clearly 
an  overestimate,  for  during  the  eight  weeks  in  question  nearly  one-third 
of  the  total  freight  for  the  year  was  carried.  No  complete  and  trust- 
worthy records  have  been  made  by  which  the  yearly  aggregate  can  be 
computed  exactly,  but  an  estimate  founded  on  toll-book  records  and  the 
evidence  of  persons  engaged  in  the  work  of  transportation  fixes  the  amount 
at  25,000  tons  in  round  numbers.  At  5  cents  per  pound,  a  computed 
average,  the  amount  paid  to  teamsters  and  shippers  in  1862  would 
be  $2,800,000,  which  is  probably  a  close  approximation  to  the  actual 
charges.  A  four-horse  or  mule  team,  which  made  the  round  trip  in 
sixteen  days  usually,  was  charged  $22.75  at  the  toll-stations,  and  the 
driver  of  a  six-mule  team  paid  $30.  According  to  a  careful  estimate 
at  least  $300,000  was  collected  by  the  toll-gate  keepers  during  the  year. 
Returns  showed  that  the  average  number  of  passengers  carried  daily 
by  the  stage  lines  was  37,  or  13,505  in  all  during  1862,  and  the  receipts 
at  $30  per  head  were  $405,150.  In  the  following  year  the  editor  of 
the  Sacramento  Union  asserted  that  the  freight  and  receipts  from  all 
sources  were  more  than  doubled;^  but  this  was  beyond  question  an 
overestimate,  though  the  travel  over  the  pass  had  largely  increased. 
A  record  from  the  books  of  one  of  the  three  stage  lines,  the  Pioneer  Stage 
Company,  showed  that  11,103  passengers  were  carried  over  Johnson's  Pass 
from  California  to  Nevada  in  1863,  and  8,430  passengers  from  Nevada  to 
California  the  same  year.^  At  $27  per  head,  the  advertised  rate,^  the 
receipts  of  the  company  amounted  to  $527,391,  exclusive  of  the  allow- 
ance for  mail  service.  The  California  Stage  Company  and  the  Nevada 
Stage  Line  transported  over  the  Henness  Pass  route  about  half  as  many 
passengers  as  were  carried  via  Placerville,  so  that  the  aggregate  receipts  of 
the  lines,  including  the  amount  paid  them  for  postal  service,  would  not  fall 
far  short  of  the  estimate  made  by  the  editor  of  the  Union,  $1,000,000. 

Records  obtained  from  the  toll-stations  and  from  the  officers  of  the 
Teamsters'  Association  show  that  the  number  of  freight  teams  regularly 

'  Sacramento  Union,  November  25,  1863. 

^  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  June  16,  1864. 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  March  18, 1863. 


INDUSTEIAL  CONFLICTS.  195 

employed  from  1863  until  the  completion  of  the  Central  Pacific  Railroad 
across  the  Sierras  was  about  1,400,  and  that  the  freight  transported 
annually  from  California  across  the  Sierras  ranged  from  45,000  to  70,000 
tons.  The  number  of  draught  animals  in  service  was  from  12,000  to 
15,000,  and  the  teamsters,  hostlers,  and  others  in  charge  of  this  great 
troop  numbered  more  than  2,000  men.  The  Pioneer  Stage  Company 
alone  employed  53  men  as  drivers  and  hostlers  in  1864,  having  12  fine 
coaches  on  the  road  and  600  horses  in  their  stables.^ 

From  daybreak  to  sunset  this  sierran  caravan  traversed  the  mountain 
passes  in  long  files.  Bells  jangled,  whips  cracked,  drivers  shouted  and 
swore,  mules  tugged  and  snorted,  horses  pranced,  lumbering  carts  creaked 
and  swayed,  and  mail-coaches  rattled  down  the  grades  at  full  speed, 
threading  the  slow-moving  lines  which  parted  to  give  them  free  passage. 
Ninety-three  hotels  and  lodging  stations  were  erected  on  the  Johnson's 
Pass  route  before  the  summer  of  1864,^  and  their  yards  were  centres  of 
bustling  life  three  times  a  day.  Drivers,  hostlers,  hotel  keepers  and  pas- 
sengers shared  the  excitement  of  this  animated  scene.  Rivalry  kept  all 
alert,  and  the  untiring  energy  to  which  the  Territories  of  the  West  owe 
their  astonishing  development  was  here  most  vividly  displayed.  Slowness 
and  indecision  were  more  hateful  than  positive  vices;  to  be  behind  time 
was  an  offense  which  could  scarcely  be  palliated  and  the  universal  watch- 
ward  was  hurry.  The  schedule  time  by  stage  from  Virginia  City  to  Sac- 
ramento was  reduced  to  18  hours,  and  special  coaches  with  many  relays 
of  horses  made  the  trip  in  12i  hours.^  The  drivers  were  expected  to 
rival  Jehu,  and  did  not  disappoint  their  passengers.  The  same  excitable 
spirit  which  blew  up  steamboats  on  the  Mississippi  overturned  coaches 
on  the  edge  of  mountain  precipices ;  yet  the  victims  bore  these  incidental 
casualties  without  a  murmur.  Thus,  when  the  Henness  Pass  stage  rolled 
down  a  steep  hill  into  the  Truckee  River,  July  22,  1863,  killing  one  man 
and  injuring  seven  others,  the  driver  was  held  blameless,*  and  when  a 
Johnson's  Pass  stage  toppled  over  the  brink  of  an  embankment  a  month 
later  (August  25,  1863),  and  the  falling  wreck  was  stayed  by  chance  in 

'  Territorial  Enterpriae,  June  16, 1864.  '  Ibid. 

3  Gold  Hill  News,  June  20,  1864.  "Territorial  Enterprise,  July  24,  1863. 


196  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  spreading  arms  of  a  large  pine  tree,  the  bruised  passengers  looked 
down  upon  the  bottom  of  the  abyss,  1,000  feet  below,  and  congratulated 
themselves  on  their  good  fortune  without  censuring  the  coachman  even 
in  thought.^ 

The  majority  of  these  accidents  were  clearly  the  result  of  careless- 
ness, but  some  were  incident  to  the  nature  of  the  mountain  region.  It  is 
difficult  to  see,  for  instance,  how  the  approach  of  the  grizzly  bear  could 
have  been  foreseen,  which  charged  over  the  road  in  front  of  a  moving  coach 
on  a  May  evening  in  1864,  whereupon  the  lead-horses,  in  sudden  terror, 
reared  and  rushed  back  toward  the  coach,  breaking  the  pole  and  causing 
the  startled  passengers  to  leap  out  and  off  in  all  directions,^  This  was 
merely  an  episode  of  sierran  travel,  and  much  less  frequent  in  occurrence 
than  the  attacks  of  stage  robbers.  These  masked  desperadoes,  well- 
armed  and  well-trained  in  their  duties,  posted  themselves  in  ambuscade 
at  convenient  points  and  attacked  the  coaches  so  suddenly  that  resistance 
was  generally  hopeless.  If  the  driver  failed  to  stop  his  horses  when 
ordered,  a  well-directed  bullet  spared  him  the  trouble,  for  the  team  could 
not  move  far  with  a  dead  or  dying  beast  in  the  traces.  Then  the  passen- 
gers left  the  coach  meekly,  in  face  of  an  ominous  line  of  shot-guns,  and 
stood  silently  in  a  row,  with  hands  outstretched  above  their  heads,  while 
an  adept  robber  searched  their  persons  for  money,  watches,  and  jewelry. 
Meanwhile  the  strong  box  of  the  express  company  was  broken  open,  or 
if  the  treasure  was  placed  in  a  safe  at  the  bottom  of  the  coach  a  powerful 
blast  of  powder  tore  open  the  safe  and  coach  without  delay.  When  all 
valuables  had  been  abstracted  the  passengers  were  allowed  to  proceed 
without  further  molestation,  as  the  robbers  were  never  unnecessarily 
cruel,  and  no  lives  were  in  danger  unless  resistance  was  offered.^  It  may 
Avell  be  imagined  that  with  these  conditions  and  chances  a  ride  over  the 
Sierras  never  lacked  for  interest  and  excitement.  If  more  rapid  commu- 
nication was  desired  it  was  afforded  by  the  telegraph  lines,  which  had 
been  carried  over  the  Sierras  and  across  the  continent.  A  line  of  570 
aniles,  built  through  a  dreary  desert  in  four  months,  stood  as  a  record  of 

'  Carson  Independent,  August  26,  1863.  °  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  11,  1864. 

2  yide  especially  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  14,  1864 ;  November  1,  4,  1866. 


INDUSTEIAL  CONFLICTS.  197 

American  energy  on  the  24th  day  of  October,  1861,  extending  from  Fort 
Churchill  to  Salt  Lake,  and  meeting  the  wire  carried  over  the  Rocky 
Mountains  from  Omaha.  From  Fort  Churchill  wires  stretched  to  Vir- 
ginia City  and  San  Francisco,  so  that  the  mining  towns  on  the  slope  of 
an  isolated  range  were  yet  in  close  connection  with  the  civilization  of  two 
coasts.  The  value  of  such  a  line  can  scarcely  be  appreciated,  but  its 
maintenance  against  fire,  floods,  storms,  snow,  and  hostile  Indians  has 
been  an  unending  battle.^ 

'  Report  of  United  States  Commisaioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1867,  pp.  433-439. 


CHAPTEE    X. 
THE    MINING   CITY. 

The  establishment  of  easy  and  rapid  communication  with  Californian 
cities  by  the  construction  of  mountain  highways  contributed  directly  and 
largely  to  the  development  of  the  towns  on  the  Comstock  Lode.  Virginia 
City  discarded  the  charter  obtained  from  the  Utah  Legislature  in  1861,  and 
was  incorporated  by  act  of  the  Nevada  Territorial  Legislature  approved 
December  19,  1862,  and  modified  by  a  subsequent  act  February  19,  1864.^ 
A  steady  influx  until  1865  swelled  the  number  of  citizens  to  more  than 
four  times  the  population  at  the  close  of  1860.  The  city  was  divided  into 
wards,  and  the  straggling  cabins  formed  parts  of  connected  rows.  Lots  of 
40  or  50  feet  frontage  in  preferred  situations  were  sold  in  1864  for  $10,000, 
$12,000,  and  even  $20,000.^  Substantial  wooden  and  brick  buildings 
lined  the  main  business  streets  and  wooden  platforms  or  sidewalks  were 
laid  in  front  of  the  stores  and  saloons.  The  unsightly,  shapeless  mining 
camp  was  rapidly  transformed  into  a  compact  city  with  graded  streets  and 
well-marked  blocks.  Then  its  several  quarters  were  separated  from  one 
another  by  plain  lines  of  distinction.  On  the  upper  streets  were  the  res- 
idences of  the  mine  superintendents  and  leading  merchants;  through 
the  centre  of  the  city  the  two  main  business  streets  ran  in  a  north  and 
south  direction,  one  passing  over  the  ridge  and  forming  the  principal 
street  of  Gold  Hill;  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Davidson  was  the  Chinese 
quarter,^  and  below  this  crowded  section  were  a  few  rickety  huts  which 
sheltered  Piute  or  Washoe  Indian  families. 

The  feverish  stir  and  restlessness  of  the  early  camps  was  somewhat 
abated,  though  the  streets  were  still  thronged  with  motley  crowds — broad- 

>  Laws  of  the  Territory  of  Nevada,  1862-'63,  p.  84,  Chap.  LXXXIII ;  1863-'64,  p.  55,  Chap.  XLV. 
'  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  26,  1871 ;  Editorial. 
3  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  23,  1863. 

(198) 


THE  MINING  CITY.  199 

cloth  elbowed  by  greasy  flannel,  diamonds  and  dirt  in  glaring  contrast. 
Bow-legged  Pi-ute  bucks  trudged  along  gravely  in  shoes  down  at  heel, 
wrapped  in  dirty  green  or  white  blankets,  and  covering  their  mops  of 
black  hair  with  the  ugliest  of  stiff-brimmed  hats.  Patient  squaws  and 
chubby  children  waddled  in  the  wake  of  their  lords,  pouncing  like  flies 
on  stray  heaps  of  offal  or  rotten  fruit  from  the  market  stalls,  or  clustering 
under  sheds  to  doze  or  play  poker,  in  which  game  the  head  of  the  family 
would  often  take  a  hand.  Gambling  and  eating  were  occupations;  work  an 
unpleasant  interlude,  when  the  fathers  would  saw  wood  and  the  mothers 
pick  up  sticks,  sustained  by  the  smells  from  neighboring  kitchens  and 
the  immediate  prospect  of  broken  victuals  or  whisky.  To  these  vagabond 
lords  of  the  soil  the  ant-like  Chinese  were  a  curious  contrast — toiling  six- 
teen hours  in  twenty-four  over  wash-tubs  or  cook-stoves,  and  grubbing  for 
refuse  stumps  of  wood  in  the  neighboring  ravines.  Yet  the  busy,  useful 
Chinese  were  snubbed  and  scorned  by  everybody,  Indians  not  excepted, 
and  only  tolerated  in  the  town  because  it  was  practically  impossible  to 
fill  their  places  with  white  servants.  So  the  inevitable  Chinese  quarter 
of  a  mining  town  grew  up,  with  its  neat  storehouses,  curious  trinkets, 
grewsome  smells  of  doubtful  meats  and  packed  dormitories,  and  the  one 
pervading  sickly  odor  of  burning  opium.  Near  by  was  another  distinctive 
quarter,  marked  out  by  law  for  the  residence  of  women  of  the  town — two 
rows  of  white  cabins  with  gaudily-furnished  rooms,  at  whose  uncurtained 
windows  the  inmates  sat,  spider-like,  waiting  for  flies.  Everywhere — 
among  the  business  stores  and  the  Chinese  laundries;  among  the  resi- 
dences of  wealthy  citizens,  high  up  on  the  mountain  side,  and  the  cot- 
tages of  the  harlots  on  the  lowest  street — were  the  drinking  saloons; 
some  with  costly  pictures,  mirrors,  and  decanters,  others  with  plain 
counters  and  black  bottles,  but  all  dispensing  the  staple  Washoe  beverage 
of  whisky  to  their  insatiable  patrons.  At  all  hours  of  the  day,  but  in  the 
evening  particularly,  the  movement  in  and  out  of  these  saloons  and  along 
the  principal  streets  was  like  the  flow  of  a  twisting  stream  over  a  rocky 
bed,  apparently  seeking  an  outlet  at  every  point,  but  turning  back  with 
swollen  waters  toward  its  source  again  and  again.  Or,  in  some  odd  way, 
as  one  watched  the  flow  it  brought  to  mind  the  circling  tramp  of  a  tiger 


200 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 


snuffing  at  bar  after  bar  of  his  cage.  Perhaps  this  was  because  the  city, 
set  in  a  desert,  had  something  prison-hke  in  its  encirchng  wall  of  barren 
hills,  and  few  thought  of  straying  beyond  its  circle  of  lights. 

For  the  wants  of  the  people  were  well  supplied.  Food,  clothing,  and 
general  merchandise  of  all  kinds  were  furnished  in  abundance  by  the 
sierran  freight  trains,  and  the  charges  were  not  exorbitant,  as  the  follow- 
ing list  of  prices  current  attests: 


PRICES  CURRENT,  VIRGINIA  CITY,  1867. 


Flour,  per  100  lbs $6.00  'Si$6.^0 

Bacon,  "California,"  per  lb. ..  25  ®  27 

Hams,            "                "      ..  28  ®  30 

Bacon,  Eastern,  per  lb 20  ®  25 

Hams,        "            "     90  ®  25 

Butter,  ranch,  per  lb 42i  ®  50 

Butter,  Eastern,  firkin,  per  lb.  40  'a>  50 

Green  coffee,  Rio,  per  lb 35  ®  00 

Green  coffee,  Java    "      40  ®  00 

Coffee,  Chartres',  1-lb.  papers.  50  ®  00 

Cheese,  California,  new,  per  lb.  25  ®  37^ 

CantUes,  per  lb 30  ®  37i 

Corn  meal,  per  lb 10  ©  00 

Lard,  California,  per  lb 25  ®  30 

Sugar,  crushed,  per  lb 19  ®  25 

Sugar,  browu,  per  lb 16  ®  20 

Sugar,  powdered,  per  lb '25  'ai  00 

Sirup,  golden,  per  gal 1.50  ®  2.00 

Tea,  black.  Comet,  per  lb....  1.12  '3  1.35 

Tea,  green,       "          "     ....  1.25  ®  1.50 

Tea,  Japanese,  per  lb 1.00  ®  1.25 

Tobacco,  plug,  per  lb 85  ®  1. 50 

Salt,  10-lb.  sacks 75  ®  00 

Salt,  5-lb.      "      50  ®  00 


Salt,  3-lb.  sacks $     25    ®$    00 

Whisky,  Monongahela,  per  gal.    5.00    ®  6.00 

Whisky,  Bourbon,  per  gal 4. 00    ®  6. 00 

Whisky,  quart  bottles 1.25    ®  1.50 

Co.il-oil,  per  gal 1.20    ®  1.50 

Eggs,  per  doz 62i  ®  00 

Eggs,  per  box,  50  doz 50    ®  00 

Mackerel,  per  kit 5.  00    ®  00 

Mackerel,  per  bbl 18.00    ®  20.  00 

Trout,  Lake  Tahoe,  per  doz . .  20    ®  25 

Codfish,  per  lb 20    ®  25 

Salmon,  salt,  per  lb 20    ®  25 

Salmon,  smoked,  per  lb 20    ®  25 

Salmon,  fresh,  per  lb 25    ®  37^ 

Herrings,  fresh,  per  lb 25    ®  00 

Herrings,  salt,  per  lb 25    ®  00 

Potatoes,  per  lb 2^  ®  3 

Potatoes,  sweet,  per  lb 12^®  16 

Cabbage,  per  lb 7    ®  8 

Green  peas,  per  lb 12^  ®  00 

Asparagus,  per  lb 20    ®  25 

Ouions,  per  lb 6    ®  10 

Beets,  per  lb 4    ®  5 

Turnips,  per  lb 4    ®  5 


Most  of  the  miners  lived  in  cabins,  cheaply  constructed  of  wood  and 
plainly  but  comfortably  furnished,  cooking  their  own  food  or  paying  from 
$8  to  |12  per  week  for  board  at  restaurants.     The  price  was  high,  but  the 


THE  MINING  CITY.  201 

food  was  varied  and  excellent,  and  men  could  well  afford  to  live  expensively 
when  the  wages  of  the  laborer  ranged  from  $3'  to  |8'  per  day.' 

As  the  city  began  to  take  form  its  people  began  more  and  more  to 
look  upon  it  as  a  permanent  home  and  to  desire  that  it  should  be  placed, 
as  far  as  might  be,  on  a  self-supporting  basis.  During  the  foundation  of* 
the  colony  all  mining  machinery  and  supphes,  except  wood,  had  been 
transported  from  California,  but  in  1863  the  first  foundry  in  the  Territory 
of  Nevada  was  built  on  the  slope  of  Mount  Davidson,  and  a  hoisting  engine 
and  pump  were  constructed  during  the  spring  of  1864  for  the  Bullion 
Mining  Company.*  The  erection  of  other  foundries  followed,  and  though 
the  larger  engines  were  still  imported  from  San  Francisco,  the  necessary 
repairs  could  generally  be  made  by  the  iron  works  at  the  mines. 

The  folly  of  transporting  salt  across  the  Sierras  to  a  Territory  whose 
soil  differed  little  from  that  of  Sodom  was  early  seen,  and  provision  was 
soon  made  for  the  supply  of  this  staple  from  Nevada  marshes.  A  train 
of  nine  Bactrian  camels  bore  loads  across  the  desert  from  the  forks  of  the 
Walker  Biver  in  1861,®  and  in  1863  two  companies  were  organized  to 
quarry  a  salt  plain  at  Sand  Springs  on  the  Humboldt  River.  Sixty  tons 
were  furnished  monthly  by  one  of  these  companies  after  beginning  work, 
in  June,  1864,  at  a  cost  to  the  consumer  of  $80  per  ton  instead  of  $120, 
the  price  asked  previously  for  salt  imported  from  California.'' 

In  the  conduct  of  this  business  an  interesting  trial  was  made  of  the 
comparative  efficiency  of  camels  and  mules  as  pack  animals  in  the  Nevada 
deserts.  On  level,  well-beaten  trails  the  camels  traveled  as  rapidly  as 
mules,  and  over  plains  of  deep  sand  as  fast  as  oxen  on  a  good  road. 

1  Paid  to  mill-hands.  ^  Paid  to  engineers  in  the  mine  hoisting-works. 

3  Contrast  these  wages  with  those  paid  to  laborers  of  the  same  class  in  England  and  Europe  in  1866  : 

Miners'  wages  per  week  in  metal  mines. 

Cornwall 18s.-20s.  =  |4.50-$5.00  I  Saxony 60  groschen  =  $1.64. 

North  of  England ....  16s.  6d.-22s.  =  $4.12-15.50  |  Nevada $28.00. 

(Report  of  R.  W.  Raymond,  October  30, 1867,  in  Report  of  United  States  Mining  Commissioner,  1867,  p.  608.) 

Yet  the  cost  of  supplies  would  not  avei-age  100  per  cent,  less  in  Cornwall  {vide  Table  of  Supplies  and  Cost 

in  Iron-producing  Districts  of  England,  by  London  Correspondent  of  Chicago  Tribune,  writing  from  London, 

May  15,  1867),  nor  200  per  cent,  less  in  Saxony  ("Down  in  a  Freiburg  Mine,"  St.  James  Magazine,  1864);  so 

that  the  actual  remuneration  for  labor  was  from  three  to  six  times  as  great  in  Nevada  as  in  those  old  districts. 

"Gold  Hill  News,  May  25,  June  27,  1864. 

6  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  3  and  October  27,  1861 ;  Sacramento  Union,  August  6, 1861 ;  San  Francisco 
Evening  Bulletin,  November  1,  1861. 

6  Gold  Hill  News,  April  14,  1865. 


202  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Their  average  load  was  slightly  under  450  pounds,  which  was  nearly 
double  the  weight  of  an  ordinary  mule  pack.^  The  cost  of  their  fodder 
was  small,  as  they  ate  greedily  all  kinds  of  grass,  thistles,  tules,  and  wil- 
lows, and  were  particularly  fond  of  the  acrid  griswood.  Yet  their  substi- 
tution for  mules  was  not  a  pronounced  success,  for  they  disliked  to  travel 
on  stony  mountain  paths,  which  formed  part  of  the  route,  and  could 
hardly  be  urged  forward  by  blows  and  curses.  Their  feet  were  cut  by 
the  sharp  pebbles  and  alkali  dust  inflamed  the  sores,  the  rudely  fitting 
pack-saddles  chafed  their  backs  and  painful  blisters  were  frequently 
formed.^  Drivers  who  would  care  for  their  mules  with  some  pride  and 
anxiety  allowed  the  tired  camels  to  shift  for  themselves,  sneering  at  them 
as  misshapen  brutes  imported  by  the  whim  of  some  theorist,  and  the  poor 
creatures  were  even  less  liked  by  travelers  generally,  whose  mules  and 
horses  stampeded  in  fright  at  first  sight  of  the  strange  beasts.^  Judged 
by  its  progress  and  results,  the  experiment  of  the  camels  may  be  regarded 
as  an  instance  of  the  fertility  of  American  enterprise  in  projects  and 
expedients  rather  than  as  a  well-considered  and  fairly  conducted  test. 

Copper  and  soda  were  obtained,  like  salt,  from  the  neighborhood  of  the 
silver  mines.*  The  copper  ore  mined  near  the  Walker  River  and  at  other 
points  was  principally  used  in  the  manufacture  of  blue-stone  or  sulphate 
of  copper  for  the  supply  of  the  mills,  by  an  enterprising  firm  in  the  town 
of  Dayton.^  There  is  no  doubt  that  sulphur  might  have  been  readily 
provided  as  well  from  districts  in  northern  Nevada,  but  for  some  reason 
this  mineral  was  imported  from  Sicily  and  the  native  deposits  were  not 
touched.  Borax,  alum,^  electro-silicon,''  and  black  oxide  of  manganese^ 
were  discovered  in  the  search  for  useful  mineral  deposits ;  but  coal,  the 
one  mineral  which  was  most  persistently  and  anxiously  sought  for,  could 
not  be  found  in  sufficient  quantity  to  justify  the  expenditure  of  capital  in 
its  extraction. 

Cheap  fuel  was  a  pressing  want  of  the  mining  district,  and  the  neigh- 
boring hills  were  so  scantily  covered  with  trees  that  it  was  soon  necessary 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  November  1,  1861;  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  28,  1663. 
2  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  30,  1864.  'Ibid.,  May  15, 1869.  *Ibid.,  July  2,  1870. 

^Ibid.,  April  29,  1873.  ^Ibid.,  February  28,  1863.  Ubid.,  August  1,  1877. 

8  Gold  Hill  News,  April  11, 14, 19, 1864. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  203 

to  bring  wood  from  the  Sierras,  or  to  find  a  substitute  in  adjacent  coal- 
mines. Under  the  stimulus  of  the  demand  parties  of  prospectors  hunted 
as  eagerly  for  coal  as  for  silver,  and  reports  of  great  discoveries  were 
soon  spread  abroad.  Thus  the  Great  Western  Coal  Company  was  organ- 
ized in  November,  1860,^  to  develop  a  coal-field  alleged  to  exist  on  the 
emigrant  trail  from  Salt  Lake,  about  90  miles  from  Carson  City ;  but  even 
the  sturdy  faith  of  Judge  Cradlebaugh,  its  president,  could  not  produce 
any  fuel  fit  for  burning.  So,  two  years  later,  it  was  announced  that  the 
Pioneer  Coal  Company  would  be  ready  to  supply  all  applicants  in  a  short 
time ;  ^  but  the  coal  was  not  forthcoming,  though  three  companies  aided 
the  Pioneer  in  extracting  the  extensive  deposits.^  "Coal  water,"  as  it 
was  termed,  was  encountered  everywhere,  however,  and  generally  put  an 
end  to  the  search.*  Some  coal  of  fair  quality  was  actually  taken  from 
these  beds,^  but  rarely  more  than  was  needed  to  supply  fuel  for  the  work- 
ing engines,  and  the  mines  were  abandoned  at  the  close  of  the  year  1864." 
The  district  was  constrained,  therefore,  to  rely  upon  the  stunted  wood 
growth  of  the  ravines  and  hill  slopes  for  the  necessary  fuel,  and  the 
demand  was  so  great  that,  even  in  1864,  several  hundred  laborers  were 
constantly  employed  in  cutting  and  hauling  firewood.''  During  the  sum- 
mer months  cedar  was  sold  at  from  $13  to  $15  per  cord  and  pine  at  from 
$16  to  $18.^  The  leading  mining  companies,  taught  by  the  costly  experi- 
ence of  a  severe  winter,  showed  some  foresight  in  providing  a  stock  of 
fuel  for  winter  use ;  but  the  easy-natured  people  of  the  mining  towns  were 
generally  less  provident.  Thus,  when  the  early  frosts  gave  warning  of  the 
change  of  seasons,  the  price  of  wood  advanced  at  once  from  $20  to  $30  per 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  November  17,  1860 ;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  November  21,  1860. 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  9,  1862 ;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  February  19,  1862. 

'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  24,  1862. 

■•San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  May  30, 1862;  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  10,  1864. 

6  Territorial  Enterprise,  March  31,  May  24, 1862 ;  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  March  19,  1862. 

^  E.  M.  Daggett,  Superintendent  Virginia  Coal  Mining  Company,  reported  August  5,  1876,  that  9,800  tons 
had  been  taken  from  their  mine  in  El  Dorado  Canon  prior  to  1865,  and  21,700  tons  by  the  re-incoiporated  com- 
pany from  1872-76.  Of  this  total  amount  13,800  tons  had  been  burned  in  Storey  County  and  the  balance  iu  the 
hoisting-works  of  the  mine. — (Territorial  Enterprise,  August  13,  1876.)  This  company,  however,  never  paid  a 
dividend,  although  producing  one  hundred  times  as  much  as  all  the  other  companies  combined,  if  this  report  is 
accurate. 

'Virginia  City  Union — in  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  November  19,  1864. 

8  Gold  Hill  News,  October  20, 1863 ;  March  20,  1865 ;  September  11, 1867. 


204  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

cord.^  During  the  winter  these  high  rates  were  paid,  and  the  poorer  people 
shivered  over  the  costly  flame  of  a  few  lighted  sticks.^  When  the  snow 
began  to  disappear  from  the  roads  in  spring  and  the  demand  for  fuel  was 
less  urgent,  the  market  price  fell  again  gradually  to  the  summer  rates — 
$17.50  per  cord  April,  1864 ;  $13  to  $14  per  cord  September,  1864.^  The 
neighboring  ravines  were  soon  stripped  of  their  scanty  tree  growth,  and 
wagons  from  Carson  and  Washoe  valleys  brought  loads  to  market  from  the 
borders  of  an  expanding  circle.  Chinese  gleaners  followed  the  American 
wood-cutters,  pulling  up  the  brush,  stumps,  and  roots  from  the  denuded 
hills.*  Trains  of  loaded  carts  could  be  seen  daily  coming  from  the  Palmyra 
district  and  El  Dorado  Caiion,  the  chief  sources  of  the  supply,®  and  troops 
of  little  donkeys,  with  burdens  of  sticks  piled  high  above  their  ears, 
scrambled  down  the  steep  hill  slopes,  goaded  on  by  Chinese  drivers,  to  their 
homes  in  the  city.  One  hundred  and  twenty  Chinese  were  so  employed 
in  1866,  and  the  daily  sales  of  one  firm  of  Chinese  wood-merchants  often 
exceeded  $300."  A  cord  of  wood  doled  out  by  their  measurement  cost 
from  $33  to  $48,  a  sale  which  yielded  a  profit  of  $20.  In  a  season  of 
exceptional  severity,  as  in  the  winter  of  1866-'67,  when  snow  covered  the 
roads  to  the  depth  of  6  feet,  wood  was  sold  for  $40  and  even  $50  per 
cord,'  and  the  sufferings  of  the  poor  were  extreme.  The  hardy  Chinese 
burrowed  under  the  snow  for  the  roots,  which  they  hawked  about  the 
streets  at  the  rate  of  $60  per  cord,  selling  their  loads  as  soon  as  gathered. 
This  rate  was  of  course  exceptional,  but  even  in  the  most  favorable  sea- 
sons the  supply  could  scarcely  keep  pace  with  the  increasing  demand. 
Timber  was  in  no  less  urgent  request,  and  the  cost  of  transportation  was 
even  greater,  as  it  was  cut  mainly  on  the  slopes  of  the  Sierra  Nevada 
range.  In  1866  it  was  reported  that  200,000  cords  of  wood  were  delivered 
to  consumers  in  the  district. 


'  Gold  Hill  News,  November  14, 1863^  December  9, 28,  1865  ;  January  9,  1868 ;  March  13,  1868. 

^Ibid.,  March  2,  1867. 

3  Ibid.,  April  8,  September  19,  1864. 

■"  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  3S4. 

6  Virginia  City  Union,  in  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  November  19,  1864. 

6  Gold  Hill  News,  April  5,  1866. 

'I6R,  March  1,2,  1867. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  205 

Daily  consumption  of  firewood. 

Cords. 

By  hoisting-works  on  mines : 70 

By  mills  crushing  ores 378 

For  domestic  use 120 

568 
568  cords  per  day,  X  365  days,  =  207,320  cords,  yearly  consumption.  Cost, 
at  $10  per  cord,  =  $2,073,200.  It  was  estimated  that  the  consumption  of  lumber  for 
building  purposes  and  mining  timbers  was  25,000,000  feet  (board  measure)  yearly,  of  which 
17,900,000  feet  were  used  in  and  around  the  mines.  The  annual  cost  of  this  supply  was 
computed  to  be  $800,000. ' 

Within  the  city  limits  similar  indications  could  be  noted  of  a  growing 
reliance  upon  the  stability  of  the  main  industry  of  the  district  which 
warranted  the  investment  of  capital  in  dependent  enterprises.  Thus  the 
franchise  of  an  embryo  gas  company  was  purchased  by  several  capitalists 
in  1862,  and  expensive  works  and  mains  were  shipped  from  Philadelphia 
on  a  vessel,  which  the  cruiser  Florida  captured  and  destroyed  in  April, 
1863.  In  no  way  discouraged,  the  same  purchasers  were  incorporated  as 
the  Virginia  Gas  Company  in  June,  1863,  and  procured,  at  a  high  price, 
the  necessary  material  in  California.  The  works  were  fully  completed  in 
November  of  the  same  year,  and  the  principal  streets  of  the  city  were 
lighted.^  Few  cut-stone  houses  were  built,  though  a  rock  quarry  had  been 
opened  by  Osmer  Dost  as  early  as  the  summer  of  1860,^  but  a  consider- 
able number  of  brick  stores  and  dwellings  were  erected.  From  clay 
obtained  near  the  city  bricks  of  good  quality  were  manufactured,  and  the 
Virginia  City  Pottery  Company  were  successful  even  in  the  production  of 
fire-proof  brick,  which  commanded  a  ready  sale  at  $500  per  M.*  By 
these  and  other  business  ventures  of  less  note  the  growth  of  an 
independent  and  self-reliant  feeling  was  fostered,  and  in  spite  of  the  fierce 
litigation  and  other  discordant  influences  it  was  felt  more  strongly  as  the 
years  passed  that  the  tie  of  common  interests  and  sectional  pride  was  an 

'  (Report  of  J.  Ross  Browne,  United  States  Commissioner,  1867,  p.  332.) — As  the  mills  were  in  active 
operation  less  than  two-thirds  of  the  year  upon  an  average,  and  the  domestic  consumption  was  overestimated,  the 
amount  of  fuel  used  was  probably  only  three-fifths  of  the  total  stated,  or  120,000  cords,  in  round  numbers. 

^  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  22,  1863. 

^  Sacramento  Union,  August  16,  1860. 

■*  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  30,  1863. 


206  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

all-embracing  bond,  and  men  welcomed  any  agencies  which  confirmed 
this  union. 

As  the  miners  of  the  lode  stood  among  the  foremost  of  their  class  in 
point  of  general  intelligence,  it  was  natural  that  they  should  appreciate 
the  advantages  of  a  thorough  common  school  education.  Even  those 
who  could  not  read,  if  any  such  were  of  their  number,  earnestly  desired 
that  their  children  should  not  grow  up  in  ignorance  like  themselves. 
Therefore  an  excellent  system  of  common  schools  had  been  provided 
under  the  Territorial  organization,  and  the  first  annual  report  of  the  State 
superintendent  for  the  year  ending  August  31,  1865,  shows  that  eleven 
serviceable  schools  had  then  been  established  in  Storey  County,  compris- 
ing Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill.  The  amount  paid  out  for  school  purposes 
in  this  county  during  the  year  was  |28,657.59,  of  which  sum  |17,130.55 
was  paid  in  salaries  to  teachers. 

Virginia  City  :  Salary  of  teacher. 

Third  Ward  Grammar $1,800 

Third  Ward  Intermediate 1,350 

Third  Ward  Primary 1,000 

Third  Ward  Object  Teaching 1,000 

Fourth  Ward  Primary 1,200 

First  Ward  First  Primary 1,300 

First  Ward  Second  Primary 1,000 

Gold  Hill: 

Ungraded  Grammar 1,350 

Second  Primary 1,000 

For  instruction  in  music 900 

American  Flat: 

Primary  School 1,000 

Flowery  District: 

Primary  School 1,000» 

The  number  of  children  attending  school  had  increased  from  420  in 
1863'  to  810  in  1866.  Of  the  850  children  in  the  county  between  the 
ages  of  6  and  18  years,  718  or  84.5  per  cent,  were  enrolled  on  the  school 
lists,  and  the  average  daily  attendance  was  84.8,  an  excellent  comparative 

'  Eeport  of  State  Superintendent  for  the  year  ending  August  31,  1865. 
2  Gold  HUl  News,  October  27,  1863. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  207 

record.  The  whole  number  of  children  (under  21  years  of  age)  in  the 
county  was  1,714,  nearly  one-fifth  of  whom  (333)  had  been  born  in 
Nevada.^ 

The  need  of  school  training  was  realized  more  generally  than  the 
value  of  religious  observances,  yet  several  church  organizations  had  been 
formed,  and  contributions  for  their  support  were  liberal,  though  the  aver- 
age attendance  and  membership  were,  small.  The  tents  and  rude  cabins 
of  the  early  church  societies  had  been  replaced  by  substantial  frame 
buildings  built  upon  stone  foundations  and  suitably  furnished.^  The 
Catholic  church  building  cost  only  one-half  the  sum  expended  upon  one 
of  the  more  pretentious  Protestant  church  editices,  but  its  membership 
was  twice  as  numerous  as  that  of  the  combined  Protestant  churches,  and 
its  relative  influence  among  the  miners  exceeded  this  proportion.  Though 
its  organization  was  incomplete,  compared  with  that  of  later  years,  yet  it 
was  a  recognized  power  in  the  lode,  and,  when  the  vengeful  miners  were 
scouring  the  city  in  search  of  a  wages-cutting  superintendent,  the  cabin  of 
its  priest  sheltered  the  fugitive  as  well  as  the  ward  of  the  cardinal  was 
guarded  by  its  viewless  circle. 

By  the  civic  organization,  the  foundation  of  churches,  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  schools  the  union  of  the  people  was  more  closely  cemented ; 
but  perhaps  no  influence  was  more  potent  than  the  war  of  the  rebellion 
(1860-65) .  The  seat  of  war  was  so  distant  and  the  colony  so  young  and 
dependent  that  it  sent  no  organized  and  representative  troop  into  battle ; 
but  the  hearts  of  its  citizens  were  always  open  to  appeals  for  aid  in  sus- 
taining the  forces  of  the  nation  through  the  long  contest,  and  there  was  a 
fervor  and  heartiness  in  these  contributions  which  deserves  record  as  an 
enduring  honor  to  the  workers  on  the  Gomstock  Lode.  Even  the  Piute 
Indians  caught  the  generous  infection,  and  several  brought  in  their  mites 
to  swell  the  collection  for  the  Sanitary  Fund  in  1862.'^  A  characteristic 
humor  was  often  shown  in  these  contributions.     Thus  a  most  liberal 

'  Official  Report  of  County  Board  of  Education,  1866. 

"  The  Catliolic  church  was  built  in  1862,  at  a  cost  of  $12,000 ;  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church  in  the 
winter  of  1862-63,  at  an  expense  of  $30,000;  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  in  1863,  costing  $30,000;  and  the 
Presbyterian  church  in  1864-65,  for  |20,000.— (Statistics  furnished  0.  D.  Wheeler,  United  States  Censtis  Agent, 
by  church  officers.) 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  October  28,  1862. 


208  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

donation  was  once  obtained  for  tlie  Sanitary  Fund,  in  1864,  by  the  odd 
device  of  selling  a  flour-sack  at  auction.  This  sack  had  been  sold  in  the 
city  of  Austin,  Nevada,  for  $5,300,'  and  was  then  borne  in  a  triumphal 
procession  through  the  streets  of  Silver  City,  Gold  Hill,  and  Virginia  City, 
escorted  by  a  jubilant  brass  band,  national  guards,  orators  of  the  day, 
horsemen,  carriages,  and  a  multitude  on  foot.^  At  the  little  town  of  Silver 
City  11,800  was  bid.  Gold  Hill  offered  $6,587.50,'  and  when  the  sack 
reached  Virginia  City  the  increasing  crowd  were  wild  with  excitement. 
The  voice  of  the  auctioneer  was  drowned  in  the  frantic  chorus  of  bids. 
The  employes  of  the  Chollar  Company  offered  $500;  the  miners  of  their 
old  rival,  the  Potosi  Company,  gave  $50  more,  and  both  were  silenced  by 
the  bid  of  the  men  in  the  service  of  the  Gould  &  Curry  Company,  who 
"  raised  Austin  out  of  her  boots"  by  the  call  of  $3,500.*  Not  only  money 
but  county  scrip,  mining  shares,  and  even  a  shot-gun  and  pouches  were 
brandished  in  the  face  of  the  exhausted  Fund  agent,  who  could  not 
receive  the  contributions  quickly  enough  to  satisfy  the  impatient  gener- 
osity of  the  crowd.  The  total  receipts  in  money  from  the  sale  in  Vir- 
ginia City  were  $13,515,^  and  the  sack  was  then  sent  across  the  Sierras  to 
California,  having  gained  nearly  $22,000  for  the  Sanitary  Fund  from  the 
Comstock  Lode  district  alone.  This  madcap  humor  went  so  far,  moreover, 
that  a  small  brown  bug  crawling  on  a  man's  leg  was  seized  and  sold 
for  $10  in  aid  of  the  Fund,  and  a  spectator  who  ventured  to  speak  disre- 
spectfully of  the  bug  and  the  Sanitary  Commission  was  soundly  thrashed 
by  an  angry  champion.'^ 

Similar  ebullitions  of  feeling  were  not  uncommon.  The  miners  of 
the  Comstock  had  a  simple  temperament,  responding  frankly  to  any  direct 
and  stirring  appeal,  and  changing  its  mood  with  every  new  impulse. 
Men  of  mature  years  were  swayed  by  their  passions  like  children  and 
seemed  to  know  no  medium  between  stolidity  and  passion.  The  ordinary 
miner's  life  is  singularly  barren  of  color  and  variety,  and  the  slumbering 
emotions  are  rarely  awakened,  but  their  force  seems  to  be  concentrated 


1  Gold  Hill  News,  May  16, 1864.  =  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  17,.  1864. 

3 Tenitorial  Enterprise, May  18, 1864.  ■* Ibid.,  May  17, 1864. 

^Ibid.   May  13,  1864.  «Ibid.,  May  17,  20, 1864. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  209 

in  these  moments  of  activity.    When  the  news  of  the  surrender  of  Gen- 
eral Lee  and  the  Confederate  Army  was  announced,  the  scene  on  the  lode 
baffles  description.     The  people  of  Virginia  City  were  literally  frantic  with 
excitement/  and  the  air  was  filled  with  the  mingling  sounds  of  bells,  gun- 
discharges,  beaten   anvils,  music,  and   cheers.      All   the   saloons  were 
crowded,  and  men  drank  over  the  bars  and  in  the  streets,  pledging  now 
one  popular  hero  and  then  another,  saluting  the  old  flag.  Old  Abe,  old 
everybody,  until  they  lost  all  power  of  recollection  and  drank  speech- 
lessly.    "No  such  drinking,"  wrote  the  editor  of  the  Virginia  Union, 
"was  ever  before  seen  anywhere.     In  less  than  three  hours  the  majority 
of  the  men  in  the  city  were  crazy  drunk,  including  many  who  were  never 
under  the  influence  of  liquor  before,  and  scores  were  to  be  seen  lying  in 
heaps  almost  anywhere.     Business  was  entirely  suspended,  and  the  print- 
ers, editors,  reporters,  and  proprietors  being  all  drunk  no  papers  were 
issued.'"^    This  carnival  of  whisky  was  immediately  succeeded  by  a  day 
of  gloomy  sorrow  and  bitterness  when  the  news  of  the  assassination  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States  came  over  the  wires  to  the  towns  of  the 
lode.    No  treasonable  whisper  was  heard  that  day,  for  the  warm-hearted 
men  who  had  pledged  Old  Abe  in  overflowing  cups  on  the  11th  of  April 
would  have  shot  dead  any  wretch  who  ventured  to  condone  the  crime  of 
the  assassin. 

To  judge  such  men  by  reference  to  the  ordinary  canons  of  taste, 
demeanor,  and  action  is  uncharitable,  if  not  unfair.  The  nature  of  the 
miner  and  the  conditions  of  his  life  have  been  rarely  presented  in  a  clear 
uncolored  light.  The  most  vivid  impressions  of  the  Western  mining 
camps  are  derived  by  most  readers  probably  from"  the  graphic  pen  of  Bret 
Harte,  but  the  odd  characters  and  temper  which  he  has  so  admirably 
portrayed  are  often  the  embellishments  of  a  fancy  which  was  not  ham- 
pered by  the  plain  realities  of  mining  life.  The  Comstock  miners  were 
and  are  ordinary  laborers,  raised  above  the  common  lot  of  their  class  by 
the  perils,  chances,  and  rewards  which  are  incident  to  their  service. 
These  conditions  have  molded  their  characters  and  their  lives.    Their 

I  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  12,  1865.  ^  Virginia  Union,  AprU  12, 1865. 

14  H  c 


210  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

senses  have  been  made  more  acute  and  their  intellectual  faculties  called 
into  more  frequent  exercise,  but  at  the  same  time  their  passions  have  been 
awakened  and  stimulated,  and  the  promptings  of  conscience  have  been 
insensibly  dulled  by  the  ever-present  temptations  of  their  life.  A  lust  for 
rapid  and  extraordinary  gains  has  possessed  all  who  risk  fortune  and  life 
in  the  mines.  This  passion  obliterates  all  nice  distinctions  of  right  and 
wrong,  and  often  tramples  upon  the  clearest  dictates  of  honor.  Moreover, 
the  daily  perils  of  a  miner's  work  and  its  certain  injury  to  health  tend 
almost  irresistibly  to  make  the  men  reckless  and  inclined  to  couple  a 
short  life  and  a  merry  one  together.  Merriment  in  a  mining  town  amid 
barren  mountains  means  to  uneducated  men  drinking  and  gaming — staple 
amusements  which  are  inevitably  dangerous  to  all  whose  passions  are  not 
under  the  control  of  a  strong  will  and  cool  judgment.  It  is  in  no  way 
surprising,  therefore,  that  excesses  of  all  kinds  were  committed  in  the 
Washoe  mining  towns. 

The  police  report  for  June,  1863,^  shows  a  total  of  167  arrests  in  Vir- 
ginia City  on  the  following  counts : 

Grand  larceny 6 

Forgery 1 

Robbery 1 

Drawing  deadly  weapons 10 

Assault  and  battery 3 

Petit  larceny ' 

Assault 1 

Fighting 13 

Threats  against  life 1 

Resisting  officer 1 4 

Malicious  mischief 2 

Disturbing  the  peace 36 

Vagrancy 1 

Violating  city  ordinance 1 

Sleeping  on  the  sidewalk H 

Selling  goods  without  license 1 

Held  to  bail  to  keep  peace 1 

Delirium  tremens 1 

Drunk  and  disorderly 66 

167 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  2,  1863. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  211 

This  list  does  not  include  arrests  made  upon  warrant,  when  the 
prisoners  were  taken  directly  to  the  justice's  court,  an  addition  which 
would  swell  the  total  number  to  more  than  200.  The  population  of  the 
city  proper  at  the  time  did  not  exceed  7,000  probably,  so  that  the  monthly 
percentage  of  arrests  compared  with  the  number  of  citizens  was  .0285+, 
or  34  per  cent,  annually  if  the  same  rate  was  maintained.  It  should  be 
borne  in  mind,  however,  that  the  city  was  a  haven  for  ruffians  who  were 
arrested  repeatedly  on  various  charges,  and  that  the  body  of  miners  com- 
mitted less  than  half  of  the  offenses  charged  on  the  record.  In  passing 
judgment  upon  this  class  of  offenders  the  temptations  which  beset  them 
should  be  well  considered — the  dreary  and  perilous  nature  of  their  daily 
work,  the  natural  craving  for  some  absorbing  amusement  when  they  passed 
from  their  dungeons  into  the  light  of  day,  the  dearth  of  all  amusements 
which  attract  men  of  their  temper  and  crude  modes  of  thought,  and  the 
strong  enticements  of  the  brightly  lighted  saloons,  the  hurdy-gurdy  houses, 
and  gaming  rooms. 

How  wearisome  and  painful  the  life  of  a  miner  is  at  best,  only  those 
who  have  earned  their  bread  in  underground  prisons  can  know.  From 
the  most  ancient  times,  writes  Gamboa,  the  toils  of  the  mine  have  served 
as  a  punishment  for  slaves,  a  torment  for  martyrs,  and  a  means  of 
revenge  to  tyrants.^  According  to  the  grave  description  of  Plautus,  min- 
ing is  attended  with  every  pain  which  hell  can  inflict,  and,  indeed,  that 
poet  considers  the  torments  of  hell  less  insufferable.^  The  crown  laws  of 
Spain  appointed  the  raising  of  ore  as  an  appropriate  punishment  for  vag- 
abonds, being  an  occupation  of  incessant  labor  and  continually  exposed 
to  imminent  risks,  in  view  of  which  it  is  said  that  the  Belgians  named 
a  mine  shaft  la  fosse  (the  grave)  intentionally,  and  in  Cornwall  the 
old  open  workings  on  a  lode  were  called  coffms,  if  Simonin's  record  is 
to  be  trusted.^  The  introduction  of  labor-saving  machinery  and  the 
progress  of  mining  science  have  mitigated  the  toils  of  mining  in  some 
measure,  but  it  is  still  the  most  dreary  and  dangerous  employment  in 

'  Gamboa's  Commentaries,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  II,  p.  280. 
2/6td.,  p.279. 
La  Vie  Souterraine ;  translated  by  H.  W.  Bristow,  F.  E.  S.,  p.  204. 


212  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

which  workingmen  are  engaged,  and  on  the  Comstock  Lode,  in  particular, 
certain  peculiar  conditions  have  made  the  work  exceptionally  distressing 
to  the  laborer.  These  conditions,  which  are  more  fully  considered  in 
other  connections,  are  chiefly  the  rapidity  with  which  the  mines  have 
been  opened,  the  neglect  of  thorough  or  systematic  ventilation,  and  the 
extraordinary  increase  of  temperature  with  progress  beneath  the  earth's 
surface. 

The  tendency  of  such  a  life  and  the  consequent  revolt  of  overstrained 
natures  is  clearly  brutalizing.  Duels  at  the  hurdy-gurdy  houses  and 
bar-room  wrangles  were  the  natural  consequences.  Prize-fights  attracted 
crowds  of  excited  partizans,  who  sometimes  varied  the  spectacle  of  two 
bleeding  and  gasping  fools  in  a  ring  by  engaging  in  a  general  melee,  as  on 
the  occasion  of  the  notable  encounter  of  two  pugilists  in  September,  1863, 
when,  after  14  rounds  had  been  fought,  the  referee  ruled  that  a  foul  blow 
had  been  struck,  a  decision  which  instantly  excited  a  furious  dispute, 
culminating  in  a  fusilade  of  pistol-shots,  a  wild  stampede  of  terrified 
horses,  and  a  hand-to-hand  fight  of  the  maddened  crowd. ^ 

These  gladiatorial  shows  were  varied  in  later  years  by  contests  of 
animals  in  Maguire's  Opera  House,  the  Virginia  City  amphitheatre. 
Here,  in  1865,  a  young  cinnamon  bear  fought  with  four  bull-dogs  in  suc- 
cession, until  the  audience,  more  pitiful  than  the  vestal  virgins,  called  upon 
the  Washoe  editor  "to  stop  the  fun,"^  and  six  years  later  another  opera 
house  was  filled  with  spectators,  who  came  to  see  a  bull  and  bear  fight 
for  the  mastery  in  a  contracted  arena;  but  as  the  bull  could  not  prod  the 
bear  into  a  fighting  humor  the  audience  left  the  theatre  in  disgust.^  They 
were  better  gratified  in  the  following  month,  when  wild-cats  fought  with 
bull-dogs  and  only  succumbed  after  a  desperate  struggle  for  life.* 

These  were  almost  the  only  pleasures  which  the  dreary  mountain 
range  afforded,  and  it  is  creditable  to  the  sense  and  humanity  of  the 
Washoe  miners  that  such  exhibitions  were  comparatively  rare.    But  it 

'  Temtorial  Enterprise,  September  23,  1863 ;  Sacramento  Union,  September  25,  1863. 
"  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  8,  1865. 
^  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  6, 1871. 
■•  Gold  Hill  News,  September  23,  1871. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  213 

was  to  be  expected  that  the  ordinary  vices  of  mining  life  would  flourish 
in  Washoe.  There  was  deep  drinking  and  high  gambling.  The  single 
men  were  usually  licentious,  and  much  of  the  Comstock  silver  and  gold 
was  squandered  in  houses  of  ill-fame;  yet  it  should  be  noted  that  the  men 
were  not  unbridled  in  their  passion,  for  virtuous  women  were  uniformly 
respected,  and  no  lady  need  desire  a  more  trusty  guardian  at  night-fall 
than  a  rough  miner  following  in  her  steps  on  his  way  home  from  work. 
It  is  only  just  to  add,  also,  that  these  workmen  have  always  been  above  the 
level  of  their  class  in  intelligence,  and  a  taste  for  reading  has  saved  many 
from  indulgence  in  demoralizing  pleasures. 

In  all  mining  districts  of  the  Pacific  coast  the  people  show  a  keen 
interest  in  the  news  of  the  day,  and  are  impatient  to  learn  it  at  the  ear- 
liest possible  moment.  Hence  a  daily  newspaper  is  often  issued  before  a 
house  is  reared  to  cover  the  printing-press ;  but  this  passion  for  news  has 
never  been  more  general  and  intense  than  in  the  Comstock  district.  The 
office  of  the  oldest  newspaper  in  Nevada,  the  Territorial  Enterprise,^  was 
transferred  from  Carson  to  Virginia  City  in  November,  1860,^  and  the 
paper  soon  proved  more  profitable  than  an  ordinary  mine.  Though  the 
advertising  rates  were  exorbitant  its  columns  were  crowded,  and  many 
notices  were  rejected  daily  for  lack  of  room,  or  issued  in  irregular  supple- 
ments. In  1863  it  was  printed  by  steam-power,  and  had  a  working  staff 
of  five  editors  and  twenty-three  compositors.^  The  Virginia  City  Union 
and  other  daily  papers  competed  with  the  Enterprise  for  popular  patron- 
age, and  three,  at  least,  were  well  supported  in  1863,*  besides  the  Gold  Hill 
News,  established  in  the  fall  of  that  year  at  Gold  Hill.  Of  the  total  circu- 
lation no  exact  record  is  attainable,  and  the  sales  varied  largely  from 
week  to  week ;  but  the  following  list,  showing  the  number  of  newspapers 
delivered  daily  by  carriers  in  Virginia  City  alone,  in  1865,  will  give  some 
idea  of  the  extent  of  the  demand  :  ^  . 

'  First  number  issued  at  Genoa,  Carson  County,  December  18,  1858. 

«  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  217. 

=  Samuel  L.  Clemens  (Mark  Twain),  City  Editor  Territorial  Enterprise,  1863 ;  "  Roughing  It,"  p.  313. 

■*  Nevada  Directory,  1863. 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  26,  1865. 


214  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Oireulaticm  of  Newspapers,  Virginia  City,  1865. 

Territorial  Enterprise 745 

Virginia  City  Union 190 

Gold  Hill  News  (estimated) 150 

Sacramento  Union 117 

San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin 90 

San  Francisco  Call 15 

San  Francisco  Alta 3 

San  Francisco  Flag 2 

Besides  these  Pacific  coast  papers  a  considerable  number  of  newspa- 
pers from  the  Eastern  States  were  regularly  received,  there  being  very  few 
American  miners  who  did  not  subscribe  for  one  or  more,  and  periodical 
literature  had  many  readers  also  among  the  miners.  In  1867,  325  copies 
of  Harpers'  Monthly  and  112  copies  of  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  the  year 
were  sold  in  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill,  and  during  the  summer  months 
alone  1,200  numbers  of  English  magazines  were  bought  in  these  towns,  the 
budget  of  the  periodical  dealers  costing  about  $1,300  monthly.^  Popular 
novelists  and  standard  authors  were  also  generally  read,  as  is  shown  by 
the  fact  that  194  separate  volumes  of  Dickens'  works,  23  sets  of  Froude's 
History  of  England,  and  44  copies  of  Shakespeare's  works,  the  majority 
being  the  most  expensive  editions,  were  sold  in  Virginia  City  during  the 
same  summer.^  The  works  of  the  principal  American  poets  were  in 
constant  demand,  50  copies  of  Whittier's  Snow-Bound  being  sold  in  one 
week  after  the  volumes  were  offered  to  customers.  These  large  purchases 
were  made,  it  should  be  remembered,  by  men  who  had  the  privilege  of 
obtaining  books  and  papers  from  two  public  libraries,  in  Gold  Hill  and 
Virginia  City,  both  of  which  had  reading-rooms  attached.^ 

The  refining  influences  of  the  stage  were  also  clearly  marked,  for  well- 
enacted  plays  of  the  better  class  have  been  as  well  received  on  the  Com- 
stock  Lode  as  in  communities  whose  pretensions  to  culture  are  greater, 
and  an  increased  sale  of  standard  dramatic  literature  has  been  one  of  the 
more  easily  recognized  effects  of  these  representations.  During  the  brief 
engagement  of  John  McCullough  at  the  Virginia  City  theatre,  in  the  sum- 
mer of  1867,  to  cite  one  recorded  instance,  30  full  copies  of  costly  editions 

'  Gold  HUl  News,  September  21,  1867.         =  Ibid.,  September  27,  1867.         '  Ibid.,  September  21,  1867. 


THE  MINING  CITY.  215 

of  Shakespeare's  works  were  purchased.^  If  performances  with  slight 
traces  of  sense,  humor,  ingenuity,  or  decency  have  also  been  popular,  few 
cities  at  present  could  cast  the  first  stone  at  the  Washoe  mining  towns. 

To  cultivate  a  perception  of  the  beautiful  in  nature  and  the  fine  arts 
among  those  whose  homes  are  in  the  bai'ren  mountains  of  Nevada  is 
unfortunately  a  Utopian  dream.  Only  a  few  flowers  will  bloom  on  that  sterile 
soil,  and  the  stunted  firs  which  cling  to  the  rocks  are  misshapen  abortions 
of  their  species.  The  white-capped  sierran  range  and  the  green-edged 
stream  of  the  Carson  are  the  only  oases  of  the  landscape.  Museums  and 
picture-galleries  will  hardly  be  established  in  mining-towns  of  uncertain 
stability  or  among  a  people  whose  appreciation  of  such  collections  is  unde- 
veloped ;  yet  an  instinctive  craving  for  something  fairer  than  their  custom- 
ary surroundings  was  evident  in  the  little  plots  of  garden  ground,  where  a 
few  plants  struggled  persistently  for  life,  and  in  the  occasional  entrance  of 
a  wagon  loaded  with  flower-pots  and  shrubs  in  bloom."  If  the  finer  tastes 
of  the  miners  were  undeveloped  the  progress  in  the  development  of  the 
mines  was  not  thereby  retarded ;  yet  the  work  of  exploration  was  not  at 
first  carried  on  with  skill  or  efficiency. 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  September  21,  1867. 

*  The  plants  In  chief  demand  were  roses,  geraniums,  verbenas,  fuschias,  orange  trees,  and  oleanders. 
Prices  ranged  from  $3  to  |10  per  pot  in  1863.— (Territorial  Enterprise,  April  30, 1863,  April  22,  1870. 


CHAPTER    XI. 

SIX  YEARS  OF  PROGRESS. 

Mr.  Deidesheimer's  device  of  square  set  timbering,  particularly- 
adapted,  as  is  evident,  to  the  extraction  of  the  ore-bodies  of  the  Comstock 
Lode,  virould  have  obviated  the  chief  practical  difficulty  encountered  in 
the  early  development  of  the  mines  had  it  been  uniformly  and  skillfully 
applied ;  but  this  was  not  always  the  case,  for  while  some  superintendents 
used  all  possible  care  in  supporting  the  walls  and  roof  of  their  ore-cham- 
bers and  prospecting-drifts  with  substantial  timbers,  others  were  inexcus- 
ably negligent  in  this  regard.  Adolf  Sutro  had  noted  the  inefficient 
and  clumsy  way  in  which  a  number  of  the  mines  on  the  lode  were  opened 
in  a  letter  to  the  San  Francisco  Alta:  "The  working  of  the  mines,"'  he 
wrote,  "is  done  without  any  system  as  yet.  Most  of  the  companies  com- 
mence without  an  eye  to  future  success.  Instead  of  running  a  tunnel  low 
down  on  the  hill  and  then  sinking  a  shaft  to  meet  it,  which  at  once 
insures  drainage  and  ventilation  and  facilitates  the  work  by  going  up- 
ward, the  claims  are  mostly  entered  from  above  and  large  openings  made, 
which  require  considerable  timbering  and  expose  the  miners  to  all  sorts  of 
difficulties."^  The  water  which  poured  into  the  bottom  of  these  pits  and 
inclines  before  they  had  reached  a  depth  of  100  feet  below  the  surface 
stopped  work  in  this  direction  for  a  time,  as  has  been  related,  until 
pumping-engines  could  be  transported  across  the  Sierras  and  placed  on 
the  line  of  the  lode.  Meanwhile  numerous  adits  were  projected  and  cut 
for  the  purposes  of  drainage  and  prospecting  far  into  the  side  of  Mount 
Davidson  and  the  adjacent  hills.  The  mines  were  thus  kept  compara- 
tively free  from  water ;  but  before  many  months  had  passed  the  careless 
manner  in  which  ore-bodies  were  removed  from  the  ledge  at  different 
points  was  made  strikingly  apparent. 

'  San  Fraucisco  Alta-California,  April  20,  1860. 

(216) 


SIX  YEAES  OF  PEOGEBSS.  217 

In  the  spring  of  1862  the  snow  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Davidson 
began  to  melt  rapidly.  The  ground  which  covered  the  shallow  mine- 
workings  at  Gold  Hill  was  washed  away  by  the  descending  floods  and 
softened  by  percolating  streams.  When  the  earth  ceased  to  be  self- 
supporting  the  few  timbers  which  propped  the  roof  and  walls  of  the 
excavations  gave  way,  and  many  mines  were  effectually  closed.^  Even  in 
midsummer  a  number  of  these  mines  had  not  been  reopened,  though  some 
were  partially  cleared  of  debris.  The  industry  of  the  district  received  a 
serious  check,  but  this  grave  warning  was  not  sufficient.  On  the  morn- 
ing of  July  15,  1863,  a  startling  crash  was  heard  at  the  other  end  of  the 
lode,  when  half  of  the  Mexican  Mine,  from  the  surface  to  the  depth  of 
225  feet,  caved  in  with  an  irresistible  momentum  which  bore  the  ponder- 
ous mass  of  crumbling  rock  and  splintered  wood  past  the  limits  of  the 
mine  into  the  workings  of  the  Ophir  Company.^  Fifty  feet  of  the  fourth 
gallery  or  level  in  the  Ophir  Mine  was  at  once  obliterated,  and  large  por- 
tions of  the  second  and  third  galleries  soon  gave  way  before  the  accumu- 
lating pressure.  An  acre  of  surface  was  crushed  open  as  if  a  blast  had 
exploded  beneath;''  the  unsupported  roof  sunk  down;  the  main  shaft 
on  the  south  line  of  the  Mexican  Mine  closed  up,  and  part  of  the  engine- 
house  was  undermined  and  destroyed.  "  The  whole  mine,"  wrote  an  admir- 
ing eye-witness,  was  "a  lovely  chaos."*  Caves  like  this  do  not  occur 
without  a  previous  warning.  A  gradual  settling  of  the  ground  had  been 
going  on  for  a  number  of  days ;  props  were  thrown  out  of  place  and  cap- 
timbers  broken;  the  sharp  cracking  of  overstrained  pillars  and  dull 
rumbling  noises  of  shifting  ground  could  be  plainly  heard;  still  the  super- 
intendent remained  blind  and  deaf;  weak  supports  were  not  braced  and 
sinking  roofs  were  not  upheld.  At  length  his  underground  house  came 
down  upon  his  head  and  nearly  crushed  him  in  its  fall.  Twenty  work- 
men were  in  the  mine  when  the  roofs  of  the  galleries  began  to  close  upon 
them;  headed  by  the  superintendent  they  rushed  toward  the  incline 
leading  up  out  of  the  mine.  A  mass  of  crumbling  rock  fell  near  them, 
forcing  the  air  through  the  drift  in  a  sudden  blast,  which  blew  out  their 
candles ;   the  sound  of  splintering  timbers  and  cracking  rock  filled  their 

1  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  July  17,  1862.  ^Xerritorial  Enterprise,  July  16,  17,  1863. 

=  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  July  27,  1863.  ■>  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  17,  1863 


218 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


ears.  In  single  file  they  groped  their  way  up  the  narrow  stairs,  crouch- 
ing and  crawling  in  the  darkness  through  the  closing  passage  which  led 
to  the  light.  After  a  short  but  frightful  climb  they  reached  the  surface 
and  knew  what  it  was  to  breathe  freely,  having  escaped  from  an  earth- 
monster's  grip  far  more  tenacious  than  the  clutch  of  the  devil-fish.  The 
superintendent  scarcely  deserved  his  good  fortune.  His  mine  was  a 
wreck  and  twenty  stout  men  nearly  lost  their  lives  through  his  negligence 
or  incapacity.  Under  the  old  Roman  Empire,  when  life  and  property 
were  guarded  as  valuable,  he  would  not  have  escaped  judgment,  as  by 
the  laws  of  Theodosius  and  Valentinian  those  who  culpably  occasioned 
loss  of  life  and  property  by  the  falling  in  of  a  pit  or  mine  were  con- 
demned to  death,  because  they  had  set  themselves  up  as  professors  of  an 
art  they  did  not  understand.^  In  this  buoyant,  careless-tempered  mining 
district,  however,  such  professors  were  only  laughed  at. 

Twenty  months  later  another  great  cave  rent  the  surface  of  Gold  Hill 
(March  5,  1865),  filling  the  upper  levels  of  the  Imperial,  Empire,  and 
Eclipse  mines,  and  breaking  up  the  ground  between  the  Empire  and 
Echpse  hoisting-works  so  violently  that  the  engines  were  thrown  out  of 
place.^  The  first  level  of  the  Imperial  Mine  was  entirely  closed,  the  sup- 
porting timbers  being  crushed  like  egg-shells,  and  so  great  was  the  con- 
cussion of  the  atmosphere  when  the  vast  body  of  earth  settled,  as  it  did 
with  one  mighty  crash,  that  fragments  of  rock  were  thrown  more  than 
300  feet  up  the  Imperial  shaft,  against  the  roof  of  the  hoisting-works, 
with  such  force  that  they  were  instantly  powdered  and  filled  the  room 
with  a  cloud  of  dust.  The  shafts  of  the  Eclipse  and  Empire  mines  were 
so  warped  that  the  men  on  the  lower  levels  could  not  be  hoisted  out,  but 
made  their  way  to  the  shaft  of  the  Imperial  Company  and  were  then 
raised  to  the  surface.  This  was  a  startling  experience,  but  as  the  ground 
had,  fortunately,  refrained  from  falling  in  until  the  upper  levels  were 
exhausted  of  their  ore-contents  and  no  person  was  killed  by  its  fall,  the 
superintendents  agreed  in  looking  upon  the  cave  as  a  permanent  benefit. 
This  cheerful  view  of  the  situation  was  characteristic  of  the  time  and 


1  Gamboa's  Commentaries,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  1,  p.  336. 
«  Gold  Hill  News,  March  6,  1865. 


SIX  YEAES  OF  PEOGEESS.  219 

place.     "Nobody's  hurt  and  who  cares,"  might  have  been  adopted  as  a 
fitting  motto  by  these  happy-go-lucky  rniners. 

Yet  the  most  reckless  of  them  could  not  always  regard  these  accidents 
with  indifference.  When  men  were  crushed  and  buried  under  masses  of 
rock  and  splintered  timbers  no  one  could  smile.  Instant  death  was  here 
a  mercy  to  the  victims.  The  mangled  bodies  of  men  who  died  like  Opie^ 
and  Sullivan  ^  were  less  piteous  to  see  than  the  prolonged  torture  of  one 
like  Patrick  Price,  who  was  buried  alive  by  a  cave  in  the  Chollar-Potosi 
Mine,  October  5,  1867.  He  was  at  work  near  the  bottom  of  an  incline 
when  the  ground  about  him  suddenly  gave  way,  owing  to  the  insufficient 
timbering  of  a  lower  level,  and  he  was  caught  and  carried  down  several 
feel  by  falling  timbers  and  rock.  The  mass  above  pressed  heavily  upon 
him,  and  he  could  not  move  hand  or  foot,  but  his  head  was  in  some  way 
protected  and  he  was  able  to  call  with  a  strong  voice  for  help.  His  fellow- 
miners  answered  the  call,  but  the  walls  of  the  incline  were  cracking  and 
settling  so  fast  that  none  dared  to  venture  within  twenty  feet  of  the  buried 
man.  For  more  than  an  hour  they  watched  the  ground  slowly  closing 
above  his  head,  but  forced  themselves  to  speak  cheeringly  that  he  might 
not  suffer  the  anguish  of  despair  also.  Once  they  set  fire  to  a  ball  of 
oakum  saturated  with  coal-oil  and  rolled  it  down  toward  him.  "I  see 
the  light,"  he  cried,  joyfully.  "  I  am  glad  you're  coming  for  me,  boys!" 
At  this  cry  a  desperate  attempt  was  made  to  place  a  rope  about  his  body 
but  in  vain.  The  loose  earth  was  falling  about  his  face,  and  his  voice 
could  scarcely  be  heard.  He  had  borne  his  lingering  torture  bravely,  but 
at  length  one  moaning  cry  passed  his  lips.  It  was  his  last.  In  a  few 
moments  a  great  mass  of  clay,  rocks,  and  timbers  slid  down  upon  him 
and  his  suffering  was  ended.^  It  would  seem  that  the  recovery  of  a  body 
merely  to  lay  it  in  a  shallower  grave  was  an  uncalled-for  service  to  the 
dead,  but  miners  are  very  reluctant  to  leave  a  corpse  in  a  mine  where 
they  are  working.  Several  attempts  were,  therefore,  made  at  difi'erent 
times  to  find  the  body  of  Price,  but  without  success,  until  the  27th  of 
May,  1869,  when  the  disfigured  remains  of  the  poor  miner,  half  eaten 

'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  10,  1866. 

^Ibid.,  October  16,  1866. 

»  Sacramento  Union,  October  8,  1867 ;  Gold  Hill  News,  October  7,  1867. 


220  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

by  rats,  were  uncovered.^  A  simple  head-board  stands  in  the  Cathohc 
grave-yard  to  record  his  death  and  to  declare  without  words  the  criminal 
carelessness  or  ignorance  of  the  men  who  failed  to  timber  and  support  a 
mine-level  properly. 

Accidents  may  of  course  occur  from  rock  falls  while  men  are  at 
work  for  which  mine  owners  are  not  justly  blamable.  In  spite  of 
repeated  warnings  miners  are  often  careless  and  lose  their  lives  in  con- 
sequence of  their  rashness ;  or,  again,  when  every  precaution  apparently 
is  taken,  some  unforeseen  chance  may  prove  the  best  judgment  to  be  in 
error,  and  the  usual  coroner's  verdict,  "  No  one  to  blame,"  may  then  be  just. 
In  later  years,  warned  by  experience,  superintendents  have  used  all  due 
care  to  protect  their  workmen,  and  probably  no  mines  in  the  world  are 
now  more  securely  timbered  than  those  on  the  Comstock  Lode ;  but  the 
fatal  results  of  the  early  neglect  should  be  remembered  forever  by  Amer- 
ican miners.  Opie,  Sullivan,  Price,  Brightmore,^  White,^  Dougherty,^ 
Kennedy,^  Hanson,^  and  others  form  a  ghastly  company  who,  though  dead, 
bear  witness  as  no  living  men  can  to  the  necessity  of  experience,  skill, 
_  and  care  in  the  development  of  our  mines.  The  men  who  refused  to 
split  Hanson's  head  open  with  an  ax  to  end  his  misery  will  not  forget 
the  cause  of  his  death;*  but  it  is  to  be  feared  that  some  who  have  not 
seen  strong  men  crushed  into  bleeding  pulp  before  their  eyes  may  be 
heedless  of  all  other  warnings.^ 

While  these  caves  were  rending  the  face  of  the  ground  and  burying  men 
in  the  mine-depths  work  along  the  line  of  the  lode  was  rapidly  pushed. 
American  miners  may  sometimes  be  reckless,  but  they  have  never  been 
accused  of  being  dilatory.  As  the  shafts  grew  deeper  the  simple  windlass, 
by  which  a  bucketful  of  water,  rock,  or  ore  was  raised  to  the  surface,  was 
replaced  by  whims  turned  by  horse-power  and  by  small  steam-hoisting 
engines.     In  1860  the  Ophir  Company  had  first  raised  ore  with  steam- 


'  Gold  Hill  News,  May  31,  1869. 

«J6«i.,  January  3,  4,1870. 

3  Ibid.,  June  29,  31,  1870 ;  San  Francisco  Bulletin,  June  29, 30, 1870. 

<  liid.,  June  29, 31, 1870. 

'  The  fatal  accident  at  the  Golden  Terra  Mine,  near  Central  City,  Dakota,  in  May,  1880,  emphasizes  this 
conclusion  ;  for  several  of  a  working  shift  were  killed  and  the  remainder  were  only  rescued  by  extraordinary 
exertions  after  an  imprisonment  of  nineteen  liours. — (Associated  Press  dispatches,  May  20, 1880.) 


SIX  YEAES  OP  PROGRESS.  221 

power  by  means  of  a  rope  wound  round  the  shaft  of  their  pumping- 
engine/  thus  pulling  a  car  filled  with  rock  up  the  incline  which  they  had 
sunk  on  the  dip  of  their  ledge ;  yet,  in  the  spring  of  1864,  they  were 
working  with  a  large  new  whim  operated  by  horse-power.  One  horse 
turned  the  whim  easily,  hoisting  a  bucket  50  feet  with  every  revolution 
of  the  drum.^  The  Sunrise  Company  in  the  spring  of  1864,  were  build- 
ing a  whim  in  place  of  their  former  windlass  on  the  score  of  greater 
cheapness  and  rapidity  of  working.^  The  cost  of  operating  a  windlass 
by  two  men  during  three  shifts  of  eight  hours  each  was  stated  to  be  |24, 
while  two  drivers  and  two  horses  would  hoist  out  the  same  quantity  of 
rock  by  means  of  a  whim  at  a  total  daily  expense  of  $12. 

During  the  first  two  years  of  work  on  the  lode  only  a  few  companies 
had  the  mouths  of  their  shafts  covered  by  buildings,  but  at  the  close  of 
1862  not  less  than  forty  companies  had  erected  houses  of  some  sort  over 
their  shafts,  and  twelve,  at  least,  had  machinery  driven  by  steam  for 
pumping  water  or  hoisting  rock  from  their  mines.*  Viewed  from  the 
mountain  summit  above  the  line  of  the  shafts  the  dingy  heaps  of  rock 
and  sand  near  the  mouth  of  every  pit  and  tunnel  appeared  like  ant-hills 
rising  imperceptibly  from  day  to  day.  Some  hills  were  comparatively 
deserted,  but  all  day  long  a  moving  swarm  of  men,  oxen, horses,  and  mules 
clustered  about  the  dumps  of  the  chief  ore-producing  mines,  the  Ophir, 
Mexican,  California,  Gould  &  Curry,  Chollar,Potosi,  and  the  small  Gold  Hill 
claims.^  Here  the  ore  of  different  grades  was  assorted,  screened,  and  shov- 
eled into  sacks  or  thrown  into  carts.  Moving  trains  wound  in  and  out 
through  the  surrounding  streets,  sometimes  caught  fast  for  a  moment  in  a 
confused  jam,  and  then  escaping  from  its  meshes  with  a  parting  salute  of 
curses  and  whip-crackings."  Below  the  surface  the  little  army  of  miners 
was  steadily  burrowing  its  way  through  the  heart  of  the  ledge,  cutting  a  few 
feet  daily  with  picks  and  drills,  one  shift  succeeded  by  another,  descending 
and  ascending  the  shafts  in  swaying  buckets  dangling  at  the  end  of  elastic 
ropes;   or,  as  in  the  Ophir  Mine,  mounting  the  incline  by  a  steep  narrow 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  BuUeiin,  December  13,  1860.  ^  Gold  Hill  News,  April  21,  1864. 

'  Gold  mil  News,  April  22,  1864.  *  Virginia  City  Union,  December  20,  1862. 

' Sacramento  Union,  December  12,  1862.        ^Virginia  City  Temtorial  Enterprise,  August  26, 1862. 


222  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

flight  of  steps  400  feet  in  length,  bearing  flickering  candles  in  a  rational 
torchlight  procession/ 

North  of  the  Ophir  Mine,  beyond  the  dwelling-houses  of  the  city,  on 
the  south  side  of  Cedar  Hill,  as  the  peak  next  to  Mount  Davidson  was 
called,  three  companies  were  at  work,  in  the  spring  of  1862,  washing  away 
the  hill-side  soil  of  red  loam  and  broken  quartz  with  hydraulic  streams. 
The  Cedar  Hill  Float  Rock  and  Surface  Mining  Company,  the  first  to 
begin  work,  had  a  stream  of  only  50  feet  head,  but  the  Cedar  Hill  Float 
Rock  and  Mining  Company  No.  2  and  the  Virginia  City  Hydraulic  Mining 
Company  had  constructed  a  large  reservoir  fully  600  feet  above  their 
placers,  which  was  filled  by  means  of  a  ditch  cut  from  Spanish  Ravine, 
and  the  water  from  it  conveyed  through  a  flume  to  the  desired  point  for 
use.  The  supply  was  not  large,  but  the  fall  was  so  great  that  the  stream 
cut  its  way  rapidly  into  the  bank,  "thrashing  boulders  about  like  pebbles."^ 

This  hydraulic  or  surface  mining  was  merely  an  incidental  accom- 
paniment of  the  great  task  of  exploring  the  depths  of  the  lode.  As  the 
unruly,  boisterous  mining  camp  began  to  yield  to  the  control  of  civilizing 
and  restraining  influences,  so  from  the  discordant  and  unsystematic  oper- 
ations underground  a  consistent  and  uniform  scheme  of  lode-development 
was  gradually  evolving.  Shafts  and  drifts  were  cut  with  some  reference 
to  the  lines  followed  in  adjacent  mines ;  connections  were  established 
systematically  between  adjoining  galleries  on  the  same  level,  and  currents 
of  fresh  air  were  made  to  flow  from  shaft  to  shaft,  changing  and  purifying 
constantly  the  vitiated  atmosphere  of  the  working  levels.  The  old  line 
of  works  was  generally  abandoned,  and  operations  were  carried  on  through 
a  new  line  of  substantially  constructed  vertical  shafts  several  hundred 
yards  to  the  east  of  the  lode  croppings  and  consequently  nearer  the  base 
of  Mount  Davidson.  These  shafts  were  divided  into  three  or  four  com- 
partments, the  Curtis  Shaft  of  the  Savage  Mining  Company  being  an 
example  of  the  better  class.  This  contained  a  pump  compartment  5  by  6 
feet,  two  "hoisting"  compartments  for  the  ordinary  mine  work,  and  one 
"sinking"  compartment,  by  which  the  shaft  was  excavated,  equal  in  size  to 


'  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  22,  1863. 

5  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  25,  June  20, 1862;  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  22, 
June  13,  1862. 


SIX  YEAES  OF  PEOGEESS.  223 

the  pump  compartment.'  The  first  row  of  shafts  had  been  lined  with 
planks  only  three  inches  in  thickness,  but  the  rock  sides  of  the  new 
shafts  were  held  in  place  by  successive  sets  of  timbers  12  inches  square, 
supported  by  posts  4  feet  in  length.^  At  different  points  on  the  line 
of  a  shaft,  generally  100  feet  apart,  openings  were  made  into  chambers 
with  a  floor  surface  of  100  square  feet  or  more,  called  stations,  where 
various  mine  supplies  were  stored,  and  from  these  stations  galleries,  known 
technically  as  cross-cuts,  were  extended  toward  the  west  at  different 
levels  through  the  barren  country  rock  until  they  reached  the  hanging 
wall  of  the  lode,  or  some  sheet  of  clay,  which  was  usually  considered  its 
eastern  boundary  plane.  When  this  clay  wall  was  fairly  pierced,  the  cut 
was  prolonged,  at  the  discretion  of  the  mine  superintendent,  either  partly 
or  entirely  across  the  lode,  meeting  in  the  latter  case  the  western  or  foot 
wall,  a  well-defined  boundary  plane  of  diorite  ordinarily.  From  this 
cross-cut  galleries,  known  as  drifts,  were  extended  through  the  lode 
lengthwise  or  in  a  direction  approximately  north  and  south,  and  cross- 
cuts from  these  galleries  at  varying  or  regular  intervals  explored  the  lode 
more  or  less  thoroughly  and  determined  the  existence  of  ore-bodies  in 
the  gangue.  Winzes,  or  galleries  cut  at  different  angles  from  one  level  to 
another,  completed  the  scheme  of  exploration  and  secured  more  perfect 
ventilation  throughout  the  mine.  Main  working  drifts  were  six  feet  high 
in  the  clear,  from  3J  to  4  feet  wide  at  the  top  and  somewhat  more  at  the 
bottom,  supported  when  necessary  by  timbers  from  8  to  12  inches  square. 
Temporary  prospecting  drifts  and  winzes  were,  however,  much  smaller, 
and  generally  left  untimbered  if  practicable.^  When  a  shaft  reached  the 
hanging  wall  of  the  ledge,  which  it  was  constantly  approaching,  as  a  per- 
pendicular projected  from  a  base  line  approaches  a  hypothenuse  drawn 
at  an  angle  of  45°  from  the  same  base,  its  course  was  commonly  changed 
to  conform  with  the  dip  of  the  ledge,  and  it  was  thereafter  known  as  an 
incline.  This  incline  might  be  continued  indefinitely,  or  a  new  shaft  cut 
from  a  point  still  farther  to  the  eastward  and  the  same  plan  of  exploration 
adopted.     Cross-cuts  and  drifts  were  extended  from  the  incline  levels  as 

'  Annual  Report,  Savage  Mining  Company,  1866,  p.  14. 

'  Report  of  United  States  Mining  Commissioner,  J.  Ross  Browne,  1867,  p.  344. 

■"  Ibid.,  p,  345. 


224  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

from  the  shaft  and  the  method  of  ore  extraction  was  the  same.  Against 
the  disadvantages  of  hoisting  ore  around  the  angle  formed  by  the  shaft 
and  incline  was  balanced  the  expense  of  constructing  a  new  shaft  and 
of  excavating  cross-cuts  to  the  hanging  wall.  The  character  of  the  rock 
through  which  the  incline  must  needs  pass,  and  the  comparative  per- 
fection of  the  ventilation,  generally  decided  the  question  in  favor  of  the 
vertical  shaft. 

As  steam-power  hoisting-engines  gradually  replaced  the  windlass 
and  whim,  iron-frame  cages  from  4J  to  6  feet  high  were  used  instead  of 
the  clumsy  iron-bound  bucket  or  skip.^  Wooden  guide-rails  on  the  sides 
of  the  shaft-compartments  regulated  the  motion  through  the  shaft,  and 
loads  were  raised  and  lowered  which  could  not  be  placed  safely  in  the 
swaying,  dangling  bucket.  Round  iron-wire  ropes  were  substituted  in 
some  mines  for  hemp  cables,  but  with  indifferent  success,  owing  to  the 
poor  quality  of  the  material  and  the  faulty  design  of  the  reel.^  In  Sep- 
tember, 1863,  the  first  flat  iron-wire  rope  was  made  by  A.  S.  Hallidie  & 
Co.,  of  San  Francisco,  for  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mine.  It  was  woven  in  two 
coils,  each  700  feet  long,  and  was  4  inches  in  breadth  by  }  inch  in  thick- 
ness.* It  was  warranted  to  raise  10  tons,  and  was  an  important  improve- 
ment upon  the  ropes  in  ordinary  use,  as  it  was  less  liable  to  slip  on  the 
barrel  of  the  reel  and  a  cage  could  thus  be  lowered  more  steadily.  Cables 
of  similar  design,  but  made  of  braided  steel  wire,  were  adopted  later  by 
the  Savage,  Hale  &  Norcross  and  a  majority  of  the  other  mines  on  the 
lode.*  Small  sheet-iron  cars  were  loaded  with  ore  or  waste  rock  at  the 
slopes  and  pushed  over  wooden  tracks  shod  with  iron  on  the  floors  of 
the  mine  galleries  to  the  stations  at  the  different  shaft  levels,  where  the 
cage  received  and  raised  them  successively  to  the  surface.  The  average 
weight  of  a  car  load  of  ore  was  1,400  pounds,^  and  as  the  cages  in  com- 
mon use  until  1871  had  only  one  compartment  it  was  necessary  to  raise 
the  cars  singly,^    The  average  speed  of  hoisting  was  700  feet  per  minute,'' 

>  Gold  Hill  News,  April  23,  1864.  =  Andrew  Fraser,  Virginia  City,  Nevada. 

'A.  S.  Hallidie,  San  Francisco,  Cal.;  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  13,  1863 ;  January  1,  1864. 

<Gold  Hill  News,  December  19,  1867. 

'Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1867, p. 345. 

»  Gold  Hill  News,  May  24, 1871. 

'  United  States  Geological  Exploration  of  Fortieth  Parallel,  vol.  Ill,  Mining  Industry,  p.  141. 


SIX  TEARS  OF  PROGRESS. 


225 


and  400  tons  in  a  day  of  twenty-four  hours  was  esteemed  an  extraor- 
dinary amount  to  extract  and  raise  to  the  surface  through  one  shaft.  This 
was  done  by  three  shifts  of  miners,  working  eight  hours  severally,  under 
the  direction  of  foremen  or  "shift  bosses."  In  earlier  years  the  working 
time  had  often  been  extended  to  ten  hours,  particularly  by  the  smaller 
companies  and  individual  owners ;  but  in  1866  eight  hours'  work  had 
become  a  uniform  requirement  throughout  the  district.  By  the  spring 
of  this  year,  also,  the  mines  had  fairly  assumed  the  appearance  of  a  con- 
nected system,  developed  continuously ;  and  it  is  of  interest  to  compare 
their  respective  work  and  product : 

GOLD  HILL  MINES.^ 


Name  of  Mine. 

Number  of  men 
employed  during 
February,  1866. 

Number  of  tons 
ore  raised  daily. 

28 
20 
50 
75 
30 
49 
27 
27 
38 
16 
48 
41 
9 
180 
11 
76 

Alpha 

76 

160 

75 

65 

40 

20 

100 

60 

60 

66 

10 

175 

10 

76 

Imperial 

Stevenson 

Pioda       -      

Confidence 

Burke  Si  Hamilton-    - 

Crown  Point 

724 

960 

VmOINIA  CITY  MINES. 


Name  of  Mine. 

Number  of  men 
employed  during 
February,  1866. 

Number  of  tons 
ore  raised  daily. 

Ophir_-    

45 

6 

245 

176 

30 
160 

30 

10 
215 
90 
40 
90 

Gould  &  Curry    _      -  _  _  - 

ChoUar-Potosi              

662 

475 

15  H  c 


'  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  Marclj  3, 1866 ;  from  Gold  Hill  News. 


226  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  total  amount  of  ore  taken  out  in  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill 
daily,  according  to  this  statement,  was  1,435  tons,  which  at  an  average  mill- 
ing value  of  $28  per  ton  would  yield  $40,180.  The  monthly  yield  at  this 
rate  would  be  $1,205,400,  which  was  a  close  approximation  to  the  actual 
product;  for  the  yield  of  the  lode  during  1866  was  reported  by  the  United 
States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining  to  be  $14,167,071.55 — a  sub- 
stantial verification  of  the  record  in  the  Gold  Hill  News.^  This  bullion 
product  was  nearly  as  great  as  that  of  any  previous  year,  though  the  assay 
value  of  the  ore  extracted  had  steadily  diminished  since  1860,  and  if  the 
cost  of  extraction  and  reduction  had  not  been  cut  down  correspondingly 
work  in  a  number  of  the  mines  would  have  been  carried  on  at  a  loss. 
The  rich  sulphurets  of  the  Ophir  and  Mexican  mines,  yielding  $3,000  to 
the  ton,  had  been  soon  exhausted,  and  the  bonanza  of  the  Gould  &  Curry 
Company,  the  milling  value  of  whose  ore  in  1862  was  $104.50  per  ton, 
furnished  ore  in  1866  of  only  one-third  of  this  value  ($36.90  per  ton);'^ 
but  while  the  cost  of  extraction  in  1862  was  fully  $12  per  ton  and  of 
reduction  $44.48  per  ton,  these  items  had  fallen  in  1866  to  $7.86  per  ton 
and  $13.57  per  ton  respectively,^  for  the  miners  in  the  service  of  the 
Gould  &  Curry  Company  were  extracting  1^^  tons  of  ore  daily  to  the  man 

'  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner,  J.  Ross  Browne,  1867,  p.  369. 

"  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1866,  pp.  78, 80. 

'  [Third  Annual  Report,  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company.] 

Number  of  tons  ore  extracted  during  1862,  in  round  numbers,  9,000. 

Cost  op  Extraction,  1862. 

Lumber  and  timber  at  mine - - $26, 149  57 

Labor  and  salaries 53, 405  07        ^ 

Materials  for  mine 7, 307  17 

Expenses  at  mine 10,478  85 

Freight  for  mine 13,925  77 

Cost  of  extracting  9,000  tons 111,266  43,  or 

$12.36-1-  per  ton,  without  deducting  cost  of  prospecting  and  dead- work. 
Cost  of  Reduction,  1862. 
Number  of  tons  reduced  from  December  16,  1861,  to  December  1, 1862,  8,427. 

Materials  for  process $42, 282  22 

Quicksilver 7,679  84 

Working  ores - 324, 889  39 

Cost  of  reducing  8,427  tons 374,951  45,  or 

144.48-)-  per  ton. 

[Seventh  Annual  Report,  Gould  &  Curry  Silver  Mining  Company,  p.  30.] 

Per  ton. 

Cost  of  exti-action,  1866 |7  86 

Cost  of  reduction,  1866 13  57 

(Cost  of  reduction,  Gould  &  Curry  Mill,  1866,  |12.27  per  ton  ;  in  custom  mills,  $15.67  per  ton  ;  average 
cost  of  reduction,  $13.57  per  ton.) 


SIX  YEAES  OF  PROGRESS.  227 

by  the  aid  of  two  hoisting-engines  and  other  mechanical  appHances.  The 
ore-body,  it  is  true,  was  easily  quarried  and  the  depth  of  profitable  work- 
ing did  not  exceed  300  feet  (though  the  shaft  was  sunk  to  the  depth  of  722 
feet  and  several  stations  opened);^  but  the  record  is  nevertheless  a  remark- 
able one  contrasted  with  the  results  obtained  in  the  mines  of  other  districts, 
for  many  of  the  miners  were  engaged  in  prospecting  the  lode.  In  the  same 
year  the  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining  reported  that 
20  men  in  the  Comstock  Mines  could  accomplish  as  much  as  100  in  the 
mines  of  Mexico,-  and  this  is  perhaps  not  an  exaggerated  estimate.  Thus 
the  high  cost  of  labor  was  offset  by  energy,  skill,  and  machinery,  and  the 
relative  cost  of  production  was,  perhaps,  in  favor  of  the  Comstock  Mines. 
The  cost  of  reduction  was  still  disproportionate  and  excessive,  yet  no 
slight  progress  was  shown  in  the  efficiency  and  cheapness  of  the  milling 
process,  for  the  cost  had  been  diminished  at  least  one-half  and  the  per- 
centage of  bullion  extracted  had  increased  fully  one-fourth. 

The  46  mining  companies  working  on  the  lode  in  1866  had  44  engines 
in  place  for  hoisting  and  pumping,'  and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year 
62  mills,  by  careful  count,  were  employed  in  reducing  ore  from  the  mines, 
running  1,271  stamps  and  919  pans,  which  crushed  and  amalgamated 
57,112  tons  of  ore  monthly.*  During  the  six  years  following  the  discovery 
of  the  lode  (1860-65  inclusive)  about  28  miles  of  tunnels  and  drifts  had 
been  excavated  and  about  51  miles  of  shafts,  winzes,  and  inclines,  exclusive 
of  slopes  and  ore-chimneys,  entailing  fully  as  much  work,  giving  a  total  of 
57  i  miles,  according  to  the  estimate  of  the  State  Surveyor  General.*  Cer- 
tainly such  an  exhibit  is  a  record  of  mining  enterprise  and  energy  which, 
considering  the  drawbacks  of  inexperience  and  locality,  stands  without  a 
parallel. 

Yet  the  progress  made  in  the  development  of  the  Comstock  Lode 
mines  during  these  years  was  not  the  only  result  of  the  discovery  nor  the 
most  important  one;  for,  incited  by  the  rewards  of  the  new  industry  and 
the  hope  of  similar  bonanzas,  swarms  of  prospectors  set  out  from  this 

'  Seventh  Annual  Report  Gould  &  Curry  Mining  Company,  December  17. 1876. 

=  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner,  1866,  p.  72.         '  Report  of  State  Surveyor  General,  1865. 

*  Mining  and  Scientific  Preas,  September  29,  1866. 

'  Report  of  S.  H.  Marlette,  Surveyor  General,  for  1865. 


228  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

district  as  a  centre  to  search  for  ledges  in  every  direction.  The  bounding 
circle  of  their  exploration  constantly  expanded,  and  newly  organized  dis- 
tricts extended  like  the  rays  of  a  star  from  its  nucleus.  When  one  of 
these  outlying  districts  promised  unusually  rich  returns,  like  the  Reese 
River  region  in  the  spring  of  1863,  a  rush  followed  which  made  it  teem 
with  prospectors  for  a  few  months,  and  then  it  in  turn  served  as  a  base 
of  supplies  and  was  encircled  by  outlying  camps.  Sometimes  the  rush 
was  rewarded  by  actual  prizes,  but  commonly  the  movement  and  dis- 
persion were  rocket -like  —  a  prolonged  whir,  a  gleaming  beacon,  a 
moment  of  splendor  as  the  centre  of  radiant  stars,  and  then  dwindling 
specks  of  faded  glory  succeeded  by  gloom  and  utter  extinction.  The 
Reese  River  district,  or  the  Toiyabe  range,  was  not  such  a  treasure-trove 
as  its  explorers  fancied — "  a  chain  200  miles  in  length,  nearly  every  mile 
of  which  is  rich  as  never  hill  or  mountain  was  rich  before;"^  still  the  rush 
toward  it  was  not  wholly  unrewarded.  From  Austin,  in  the  heart  of  the 
range,  districts  radiated  like  the  spokes  of  a  wheel ;  southwest  lay  lone, 
Union,  and  Mammoth;  west,  Augusta  and  Cold  Spring;  northwest, 
Ravenswood;  northeast,  Cortez;  southeast,  Jefferson  and  others;  east, 
Mountain,  Eureka,  Diamond,  and  Gold  Canon,  chief  among  scores  of 
others  then  notable,  now  nameless  and  forgotten.® 

In  this  way  Nevada  was  explored;  nor  was  the  quest  limited  by  the 
confines  of  the  Territory.  From  California  and  the  older  States  of  the 
Mississippi  Valley  venturesome  prospectors  crossed  and  recrossed  the 
intervening  tract  of  deserts  and  mountain  ranges  in  the  Great  Basin. 
Before  the  discovery  of  the  Comstock  Lode  their  efforts  had  been  mainly 
directed  toward  the  discovery  of  gold  placers;  but  incited  by  the  reported 
yield  of  the  quartz  mines  in  California  and  Nevada,  the  mountain  ranges 
were  searched  for  ledges  no  less  diligently  than  the  ravines  were  scoured 
for  gold  dust.  In  the  basin  east  of  Nevada  the  search  was  not  well 
rewarded.  Some  developments  were  made  in  the  Rush  Valley  district  in 
Utah  and  smelting-works  were  erected,  but  the  process  failed  to  extract 
the  precious  metals  satisfactorily,  and  owing  to  the  expense  of  production 

'  Reese  River  Reveille,  in  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  7,  1864. 


SIX  YEARS  OF  PEOGEESS.  229 

the  work  was  unprofitable.^  North  of  the  Nevada  boundary  line  better 
results  were  attained.  In  Montana  the  first  rude  quartz-mill  was  erected 
in  the  Bannock  district  during  the  winter  of  1862-'63.  Its  iron  work  was 
fashioned  in  a  blacksmith  shop  from  the  wrecks  of  old  wagons,  and  much 
of  the  wood-work  was  obtained  from  the  same  source;  yet  it  reduced  the 
rich  ore  of  the  Dakota  Lode  with  considerable  profit,  wherein  it  outdid 
the  early  workings  of  the  more  pretentious  steam  stamp-mills  erected  in 
1864.'^  The  quartz  veins  of  Owyhee  and  Alturas  districts  in  Idaho  began 
to  attract  attention  in  1864,  and  productive  mines  were  then  first  opened 
in  that  Territory.^  South  of  Nevada  districts  were  organized  in  1862, 
along  the  valley  of  the  Colorado  River,  and  the  mines  of  central  Arizona 
were  opened  in  1863.* 

On  the  western  slopes  of  the  Rocky  Mountains  the  influence  of  the 
Nevada  silver  discoveries  was  no  less  noticeable  in  the  stimulus  thereby 
given  to  the  search  for  deposits  of  the  precious  metals.  Gold  placer  dis- 
coveries attracted  a  swarm  of  prospectors  to  Colorado  in  1859,  as  many 
parts  of  the  Territ-ory  had  been  explored  by  gold  hunters  during  the  pre- 
vious year.  On  the  6th  of  May,  1859,  the  Gregory  Lode,  in  Gilpin  County, 
was  located  and  the  foundation  thus  laid  for  the  towns  of  Central  City 
and  Black  Hawk.®  Seven  years  later  the  richness  of  the  great  silver-ledge 
belt  on  the  western  slope  of  the  Rocky  Mountain  range  was  made  known 
generally  by  the  display  at  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  masses  of  silver  ore 
from  the  Argentine  and  Griffith  districts  in  Clear  Creek  County,  and  the 
search  for  silver-bearing  quartz  ledges  was  renewed  with  fresh  energy 
and  richly  rewarded." 

The  knowledge  of  the  mineral  riches  of  New  Mexico  was  obtained 
rather  from  desultory  observation  than  systematic  working,  but  sufficient 
information  was  furnished  to  warrant  a  strongly-worded  report  from  Com- 
missioner Taylor  in  May,  1868,  commending  the  ledge  developments  to 
the  attention  of  capitalists.' 

'  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner,  J.  Ross  Browne,  1867,  p.  484. 

» lUd.,  p.  498.  3  Hid.,  1866,  p.  36.  ■■  Ihid.,  1867,  pp.  452-466. 

6  Report  of  T.  W.  Noyes,  Special  Agent,  10th  Census,  1880. 

'  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner,  James  W.  Taylor,  1867,  p.  9.  ' Ibid.,  pp.  4, 5. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATER. 

The  yield  of  the  silver  mines  of  outlying  Territories  was,  however, 
prospective  rather  than  actual.  Nevada  was  incontestably  the  main 
silver-producing  region,  and  within  its  limits  the  Comstock  Lode  district 
maintained  its  foremost  position  undisputed,  both  in  productiveness  and 
development.  Progress  was  here  made,  moreover,  in  the  face  of  an  actively- 
resisting  obstacle.  The  delays  in  the  development  of  the  mines  which 
were  occasioned  by  ignorance  or  heedlessness,  by  insufficient  timbering, 
and  ill-judged  attempts  to  explore  the  lode,  were  few  and  transitory  com- 
pared with  those  caused  by  the  influx  of  water,  the  arch  enemy  of  miners 
from  earliest  history.  Gamboa  names  it  as  a  principal  cause  of  the  aban- 
donment of  most  of  the  ancient  mines  of  Spain,  and  predicts  the  deca- 
dence of  the  most  populous  and  productive  mining  districts  in  the  New 
World  because  of  the  violation  of  the  Crown  ordinances  requiring  the 
construction  of  efficient  systems  of  drainage.^  The  deluge  which  closed 
the  Real  del  Monte  Mine,  in  Durango,  for  fifty  years  ;^  the  inundation  of 
the  famous  mine  of  Quebradilla  in  Zacatecas;  the  endless  contest  with 
inpouring  floods  at  the  rich  mines  of  Guanaxuato,  and  a  hundred  similar 
instances  enforced  his  warning.  The  mines  of  the  Comstock  Lode  met 
this  adversary  at  the  very  outset  of  their  undertaking.  How  the  Union 
Tunnel  and  other  adits  of  its  class  were  cut  during  the  year  1860  as 
artificial  channels  of  drainage  has  been  briefly  narrated.  For  a  year  or 
two  the  water  was  controlled  by  means  of  these  outlets  and  the  simple 
windlasses  which  hoisted  buckets  laboriously  to  the  surface.  As  the 
shafts  progressed  in  depth  longer  adits  were  cut  at  points  nearer  the  foot 

'  Gamboa's  Commeutaries,  Heathfield's  Translation,  vol.  II,  pp.  305, 306. 
'London  Quarterly  Review,  April,  1864. 

(230) 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATEE.  231 

of  Mount  Davidson,  the  Yolo/  Cedar  Hill,-  Kenosha,'  United  States,* 
Mount  Davidson,"  Granada,*'  Caledonia,'  Gold  Hill,*'  Santa  Fe,^  Latrobe,'"  and 
others,  ranging  from  700  to  3,300  feet  in  length,  which  pierced  the  lode  at 
different  points  and  served  as  drainways  for  the  water.     Small  pumping 
engines  were  also  set  up  at  the  principal  shafts  on  the  lode,  twelve  being 
in  place  at  the  end  of  the  year  1862,"  so  that  by  these  combined  methods 
the  mines  were  kept  comparatively  free  of  water  until  1864;  but  this  for- 
tunate condition  was  partly  due  to  the  fact  that  the  miners  dreaded  the 
probable  reservoirs  of  water  which  were  pent  up  in  unseen  chambers 
Avithin  the  ledge  and  cut  their  way  carefully,  passing  by  ominous  partitions  . 
of  clay,  which  experience  had  taught  them  were  natural  bulkheads,  and 
turning  aside  from  the  wettest  portions  of  the  lode.     Carelessness  in  this 
regard  proved  disastrous  more  than  once,  as  when  a  miner  drove  his  pick 
through  a  clay  seam  in  a  cross-cut  of  the  Ophir  Mine,  at  a  point  313  feet 
below  the  surface,  January  18,  1863,  and  a  spout  of  water  followed  the 
blow  which  forced  the  miners  to  drop  their  picks  and  fly  for  their  lives.*^ 
Fifty  hours  after  its  outburst  the  water  had  formed  a  subterranean  lake 
in  the  mine  21   feet  deep  by  30  in  width  and  100  feet  in  length.      In 
spite  of  the  suction  of  the  pumps,  which  were  worked  to  their  full  capacity, 
the  water  steadily  rose  in  the  mine  and  was  only  checked  by  means  of 
additional  pumps  in  the  Ophir  Mine  and  the  use  of  a  bailing-tank  in  the 
Mexican  Mine  adjacent,  which  lifted  7,020  cubic  feet  of  water  per  day. 
Five  months  later,  in  July,  1863,  the  stream  still  continued  flowing  in 
considerable  volume,  and  a  shaft  sunk  to  the  depth  of  100  feet  below  the 
cross-cut  (313  feet  from  the  surface)  was  abandoned  on  account  of  the 
further  influx  of  water  until  the  Latrobe  Tunnel  reached  that  section  of 

the  lode.^ 

The  Ophir  Mine  was  undoubtedly  more  troubled  by  floods  than  any 
other  productive  mine  in  the  district;  but  during  1864  the  small  pumps 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  December  10,  1863.  » Territorial  Enterprise,  February  2, 1861. 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  March  23,  1863.  *Ibid.,  March  26,  1863.  ^ Ibid ,  June  15,  1861. 

6  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  February  19, 1861.       '  Gold  Hill  News,  May  20,  1864. 
8  Gold  Hill  News,  June  17,  1864.  >>  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  14,  1863. 

'»  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  22,  1866.  "  Sacramento  Union,  December  24,  1862. 

^^  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  21,  22,  1863.  "  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  July  27,  1863. 


232  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

and  hoisting-tanks  on  the  line  of  the  lode  proved  insufficient,  and  a  gen- 
eral substitution  of  new  and  more  powerful  engines  was  begun.  When 
the  Best  &  Belcher  Company  started  their  new  pump  of  12-inch  bore, 
April  26,  1864,  the  water  in  their  main  shaft  was  30  feet  deep  and  work 
had  been  suspended  for  some  time.'  The  Crown  Point  Company  gave  up 
the  attempt  to  lower  the  water  in  their  shaft  June  10,  1864,  for  their 
engine  could  only  keep  the  water  2  feet  below  its  natural  level,  80  feet 
above  the  bottom  of  the  shaft  ;^  the  Overman  Mining  Company  suspended 
operations  during  the  same  month,  as  the  water  flowed  into  their  shaft 
so  rapidly  that  they  were  unable  to  continue  work  until  a  recently  ordered 
pump  had  been  set  in  place;*  and  in  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  a  body  of 
water  was  tapped  at  a  depth  of  317  feet  below  the  surface,  July  6,  1864, 
which  entered  the  shaft  as  a  stream  2J  inches  in  diameter;  filling  the 
works  to  a  depth  of  20  feet,  its  natural  level,  and  constraining  the  com- 
pany to  put  a  pump  in  place  at  once.*  The  Belcher,^  Uncle  Sam,^  and 
Justice'  mines  were  almost  equally  afflicted  by  the  water-plague,  and  the 
mines  scattered  over  the  basin  called  American  Flat,  a  mile  southwest  of 
Gold  Hill,  were  compelled  to  suspend  work  with  scarce  an  exception  for 
the  want  of  adequate  machinery  to  cope  with  the  same  obstacle.* 

At  the  northern  end  of  the  lode  the  plague  had  in  no  degree  abated. 
The  Ophir  Company  had  just  succeeded  in  pumping  out  the  reservoir 
opened  in  January,  1863,  and  begun  drifting  again,  when,  on  the  25th  of 
December,  1864,  another  great  "water-pocket,"  so  called,  was  tapped  at  a 
point  25  feet  above  the  foot  of  the  shaft.^  It  rushed  in  with  such  force 
that  the  men  in  the  shaft  at  the  time  narrowly  escaped  death  by  drown- 
ing, and  on  the  following  day  it  had  risen  to  the  height  of  160  feet.  This 
was  even  more  discouraging  than  the  previous  flood,  and  the  apprehen- 
sions of  observant  stockholders  in  mines  on  the  lode  were  not  allayed  by 
the  report  of  the  superintendent  of  the  Belcher  Mine,  twelve  months  later, 
showing,  as  it  did,  in  unmistakable  terms,  how  formidable  the  great  adver- 
sary of  mining  had  become ;  for,  though  the  Belcher  Mine  pump  was 
discharging  1,017,878  gallons  every  24  hours,  yet  work  on  the  520-foot 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  April  28,  1864.  '^  Ibid.,  June  11,  1864.  '  lUd.,  June  20,  1864. 

*  Ibid.,  July  6,  1864.  '  Ibid.,  June  13,  1864.  «  Ibid.,  June  20,  1864. 

^ Ibid.,  June  14,  1864.        'Ibid.,  May  18,  1864.  9 Territorial  Enterprise,  December  27,  1864. 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATER.  233 

level  of  the  mine  had  been  stopped  for  nearly  three  months,  as  it  was 
impossible  to  make  any  headway  until  the  420-foot  level  was  at  least  par- 
tially drained  of  the  water  which  was  constantly  entering.' 

A  cheap  and  effective  method  of  freeing  the  mines  from  water  was 
urgently  needed.  Drainage  by  tunnels  is  always  the  most  effective  and 
usually  the  cheapest,  when  the  topography  of  the  surrounding  country 
admits  of  their  excavation.  This  principle  was  clearly  recognized  by  the 
mining  companies,  and  tunnels  had  been  cut  to  pierce  the  base  of  Mount 
Davidson  on  a  level  with  the  head  of  the  canons;  but  when  the  shafts 
passed  this  level  the  tunnels  no  longer  afforded  a  free  outlet  for  the  water 
encountered,  and  it  was  necessary  to  resort  to  pumps  which  could  hardly 
cope  with  the  influx.  In  this  emergency  the  practicability  of  cutting  a 
drainway  to  enter  the  lode  at  a  deeper  level  became  a  question  of  the  first 
importance  and  interest.  The  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia  Tunnel  and  Mining 
Company  answered  it  by  beginning  the  construction  of  a  tunnel  on  the 
west  side  of  Gold  Canon,  nearly  a  mile  below  Gold  Hill,  in  the  summer  of 
1863,  to  pierce  the  Comstock  Lode  at  a  depth  of  800  feet,  and  extend 
north  below  Virginia  City.  In  May,  1864,  it  had  been  advanced  840  feet, 
being  7  feet  wide  at  the  bottom,  6i  feet  high,  and  Gi  feet  wide  at  the  top. 
The  paralysis  of  the  mining  industry  in  the  summer  of  1864,  consequent 
upon  the  panic  in  the  stock  market,  affected  this  work  so  seriously  that 
the  project  was  not  carried  out,  and  when  a  revival  of  the  plan  seemed 
probable,  a  new  design  of  extraordinary  proportions  was  brought  to  the 
attention  of  the  mining  public  which  effectually  blotted  out  of  mind  its 
humbler  rival. 

By  an  Act  of  the  Nevada  State  Legislature,  approved  February  4, 
1865,  theSutro  Tunnel  Company  was  incorporated,  and  the  exclusive  priv- 
ilege granted  for  the  ensuing  fifty  years  to  construct  and  excavate  a  tunnel 
extending  from  the  foot-hills  of  the  Carson  Valley  at  any  point  between 
Webber  and  Corral  Canons  to  the  Comstock  Lode.  The  proposed  length 
of  this  adit  was  more  than  3  miles — 20,489  feet,  as  finally  determined- — 
and  it  would  cut  the  lode  at  a  depth  of  1,663  feet  8  inches  below  the  top 

'  Report  of  Jno.  Lambert,  Superintendent  Belcher  Mining  Company,  December  26,  1865 ;  Territorial 
Enterprise,  December  29,  1865. 

'  George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 


234  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

of  the  nearest  mine  shaft,  that  of  the  Savage  Mining  Company.  The 
trustees  and  incorporators  of  the  Tunnel  Company  were  Adolph  Sutro, 
William  M.  Stewart,  D.  E.  Avery,  Louis  Janin,  and  H.  K.  Mitchell.  Mr. 
Stewart  was  the  president  of  the  company,  but  its  originator  and  moving 
.spirit  was  Adolph  Sutro,  who  then  first  came  to  the  front  as  a  lead- 
ing actor  in  the  drama  of  mining  industry  daily  enacted  on  the  lode. 
His  clear  and  trustworthy  account  of  the  singular  battle  at  Pyramid  Lake 
in  1860  has  been  already  noted,  and  he  had  been  an  interested  and  intelli- 
gent observer  of  the  mining  operations  on  the  lode,  advocating,  early  in 
1860,  the  desirability  of  developing  the  mines  by  means  of  adits,  but  had 
taken  no  active  part  in  this  work.  The  owner  of  a  quartz-mill  on  the 
Carson  River,  which  required  his  personal  attention,  he  naturally  remained 
aloof  from  the  contests  which  convulsed  the  district  during  the  early  years 
of  its  history;  but  when  the  Territory  became  a  State,  and  the  mining 
companies  on  the  lode,  weary  of  the  interminable  litigation,  were  com- 
promising and  adjusting  their  disputed  claims,  Mr.  Sutro  grasped  the 
favorable  opportunity  and  presented  his  great  plan  for  the  development 
of  the  mines.  Securing  the  powerful  support  of  Senator  Stewart,  who 
was  never  slow  to  recognize  the  advantages  and  possibilities  of  great  con- 
ceptions like  this,  Mr.  Sutro  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  charter  for  his  com- 
pany from  the  first  State  Legislature  of  Nevada,  and  secured  contracts  in 
April,  1866,  from  23  of  the  principal  mining  companies,  representing  95 
per  cent,  of  the  market  value  of  all  the  mines  on  the  Comstock  Lode  at 
the  time.^ 

By  these  contracts  the  companies  which  signed  the  articles  of 
agreement  bound  themselves  to  pay  the  sum  of  $2  for  every  ton  of  ore 
extracted  from  their  respective  mines,  after  the  extension  of  the  tunnel 
and  its  lateral  drifts  to  designated  points  within  their  boundaries,  which 
excavation  was  held  to  constitute  an  effective  drainway.^  The  privilege 
was  granted  to  the  companies  of  transporting  men,  ore,  waste  rock,  tim- 
bers, tools,  and  other  materials  through  the  tunnel  on  payment  of  stipu- 
lated sums.^    It  was  provided  that  the  tunnel  should  not  be  less  than  7 

'  Bank  of  California  against  the  Sutro  Tunnel :  Argument  and  Statement  of  Facts,  p.  17. 
» Ibid.,  p.  15.  » Ibkl.,  p.  14. 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATER.  235 

feet  in  height  and  8  feet  in  width  in  the  clear,  with  a  grade  of  not  less 
than  1  inch  to  the  100  feet.  To  guarantee  the  completion  of  this  drain- 
way  within  a  reasonable  term  of  years  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  con- 
tracted to  secure  subscriptions  amounting  to  $3,000,000  before  the  1st 
of  August,  1867,  and  to  expend  a  certain  sum  annually  thereafter  in 
prosecuting  the  work.' 

The  project  then  assumed  a  form- which  could  be  presented  to  the 
attention  of  capitalists  in  this  country  and  abroad;  but  there  was  some 
question  in  regard  to  the  power  of  the  State  Legislature  to  grant  the 
valuable  privileges  conceded  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company,  involving  as 
they  did  the  disposal  of  a  portion  of  the  mineral  lands  reserved  to  the 
United  States.  The  mining  companies  on  the  lode  were,  moreover,  legally 
in  the  position  of  mere  squatters  on  the  land,  and  their  agreement  to  pay 
certain  rates,  when  their  possessory  titles  were  still  unconfirmed,  was  not 
a  sufficient  guarantee  to  warrant  the  investment  of  capital  in  the  enterprise. 
Recognizing  these  facts,  the  Tunnel  Company  took  measures  at  once  to 
secure  their  rights  under  the  State  franchise  and  the  later  contracts  by 
obtaining  the  passage  of  an  act  by  Congress,  approved  July  26,  1866, 
granting  to  Adolf  Sutro,  his  heirs  and  assigns,  the  right  to  construct  a 
mining,  draining,  and  exploring  tunnel  to  and  through  the  Comstock 
Lode  from  the  foot-hills  near  the  Carson  River,  together  with  other  val- 
uable privileges,  and  making  the  tenure  of  all  mines  on  the  Comstock 
Lode  subject  to  the  conditions  expressed  in  such  contracts  as  had  been 
or  should  thereafter  be  made  between  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  and 
the  mining  companies  representing  a  majority  of  the  estimated  value  of 
the  Comstock  Lode  at  that  time,  July  26,  1866. 

So  far  Sutro  had  been  aided  by  powerful  co-operation  and  had  met 
little  or  no  opposition.  His  company  was  duly  organized  and  its  rights 
and  privileges  fully  determined  and  confirmed.  The  prosecution  of  the 
enterprise  was  assured  as  soon  as  the  requisite  capital,  the  one  thing 
needful,  had  been  subscribed.  Under  the  provisions  of  the  contracts  it 
was  necessary  for  the  company  to  secure  |3,000,000  in  subscriptions  to 
its  capital  stock  before  the  1st  of  August,  1867,  and  Sutro  accordingly 

'  Bank  of  California  against  the  Sutro  Tunnel:  Argument  and  statement  of  facts,  p.  12. 


236  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

went  directly  to  New  York  from  Washington  after  the  passage  of  the 
tunnel  act,  and  endeavored  to  interest  the  leading  merchants,  bankers, 
and  other  capitalists  of  the  city  in  his  undertaking.^  The  Comstock 
miners  were  then  comparatively  unknown  in  the  Eastern  States,  the  proba- 
ble magnitude  and  continuance  in  depth  of  the  lode  were  not  sufficiently 
demonstrable,  Eastern  capitalists  were  slow  to  invest  in  distant  mining 
operations  at  all,  and  the  prospective  profits  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel  appeared 
to  them  vague  and  uncertain,  while  the  admitted  cost  of  the  undertaking 
was  clearly  immense.  Under  these  drawbacks  he  showed  marked  ability 
as  a  financial  agent  in  obtaining  attentive  consideration  for  his  scheme  and 
a  virtual  pledge  from  a  number  of  capitalists  that  if  he  would  get  a  prelim- 
inary subscription  of  a  few  hundred  thousand  dollars  on  the  Pacific  coast 
they  would  secure  three  millions  additional  in  the  East.  With  this  guar- 
antee he  returned  to  California  and  submitted  the  results  of  his  negotiation 
to  the  mining  companies  interested  in  its  success.  He  showed  them  that  by 
becoming  owners  in  the  tunnel  enterprise  they  might  receive  in  dividends 
all  they  would  be  obliged  to  pay  out  in  royalties  for  the  ores  removed  when 
their  mines  were  productive ;  and  that  when  their  mines  became  barren 
from  time  to  time,  the  dividends  from  the  tunnel  stock  would  furnish  the 
means  of  prospecting.  His  arguments,  whether  valid  or  not,  were  so  con- 
vincing that  1600,000  was  subscribed  conditionally  by  the  mining  compa- 
nies on  the  lode  before  the  end  of  May,  1867,^  and  an  extension  of  one  year's 
time  in  which  to  secure  the  additional  capital  needed  was  granted  to  him  by 
eleven  companies,  the  product  of  whose  mines  in  1867  was  71  per  cent,  of 
the  total  yield  of  the  lode  for  that  year.^  As  a  further  assistance  in  obtain- 
ing funds  for  his  work  the  Nevada  Legislature  had  listened  to  his  represen- 
tations and  petitioned  Congress  in  January,  1867,  to  grant  such  material 
aid  as  would  secure  the  speedy  construction  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  repre- 
senting this  work  to  be  of  the  first  importance  to  the  mining  interests  of 
the  whole  country  and  certain  to  increase  the  revenues  of  the  nation.* 

The  tunnel  scheme  was  blossoming  rarely  and  the  fruit  was  all  but 
plucked,  in  anticipation,  when  a  sudden  frost  blighted  the  opening  buds, 

>  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  Edition  1872,  p.  872.  ^  Ihid.,  p.  873. 

"  Bank  of  California  against  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  18. 
*  Ibid.,  pp.  33, 34. 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATEE.  237 

The  mining  companies  on  the  lode  canceled  the  subscriptions  made  by  their 
trustees  to  the  stock  of  the  Tunnel  Company,  and  the  pledge  of  the  New- 
York  capitalists  was  practically  annulled  in  consequence.  The  announce- 
ment of  this  action  was  a  bitter  disappointment  to  Mr.  Sutro.  He  had 
worked  with  tireless  energy  to  achieve  success  and  was  just  raising  the  cup 
of  fruition  to  his  lips,  as  he  thought,  when  it  was  dashed  to  the  ground. 
To  most  men  this  reverse  would  have  been  a  crushing  blow ;  to  Sutro  it 
was  only  a  stinging  goad.  Smarting  under  the  sense  of  injustice  he  began, 
almost  single-handed,  a  war  offensive  and  defensive  against  the  controllers 
of  the  Comstock  Lode.  In  this  contest  his  indomitable  energy,  his  tenacity 
of  resolution,  and  his  fertility  of  resource  extorted  the  admiration  of 
even  his  bitterest  opponents ;  yet  the  result  of  the  contest  at  the  outset 
appeared  a  foregone  conclusion.  Senator  Stewart  had  resigned  his  posi- 
tion as  president  of  the  company,^  and  the  burden  of  the  struggle  fell  on 
the  shoulders  of  Sutro  alone.  The  cost  of  excavating  the  tunnel  was 
estimated  at  from  |4,000,000  to  $5,000,000,  and  he  was  obliged  to  secure 
this  great  sum  in  the  face  of  an  organized  opposition.  Drainways  and 
sewers  have  been  constructed  before,  while  many  of  those  directly  bene- 
fited by  the  work  were  reluctant  to  contribute  toward  their  execution,  but 
never  before  had  a  tunnel  been  cut  to  develop  or  drain  .a  line  of  mines 
whose  owners  unanimously  objected  to  its  extension;  nor  was  this  antag- 
onism a  tacit  or  passive  one.  The  subscriptions  were  formally  repudiated 
and  the  influence  of  the  combined  mining  companies,  supported  by  the 
great  financial  power  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  Bank  of  California,  was 
brought  to  bear^  actively,  directly  and  indirectly,  against  the  efforts  of  a 
single  man  to  secure  help  from  private  investors  or  from  Congress  in  the 
prosecution  of  his  extraordinary  undertaking. 

What  was  the  reason  of  this  formidable  opposition?  It  was  osten- 
sibly based  on  two  main  grounds — alleged  distrust  of  Sutro  as  finan- 
cial agent  and  manager  of  the  Tunnel  Company  and  the  belief  that 
the  tunnel  itself  was  unnecessary  or  that  the  tribute  exacted  from  the 
mines  was  an  exorbitant  tax  for  the  service  rendered.^  The  cause  of  this 
suddenly-professed  distrust  of  Sutro  is  not  apparent.     In  May,  1866,  as 


'  William  M.  Stewart.  =  William  E.  Sharon ;  I.  L.  Eequa. 


238  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

appears  from  the  letter  of  the  cashier  of  the  Bank  of  CaUfornia  to  the 
Oriental  Bank  Corporation  of  London,  England,  the  tunnel  scheme  was 
commended  strongly  to  the  attention  of  investors  in  the  United  Kingdom, 
and  its  advocate  was  introduced  as  an  agent  deserving  of  confidence.^  In 
January,  1867,  the  thanks  of  the  Legislature  of  Nevada  were  cordially 
extended  to  Adolf  Sutro  for  his  "great  service"  in  originating  the  Sutro 
Tunnel  scheme^  and  urging  forward  the  undertaking;  and  the  same  legis- 
lature expressed  their  entire  confidence  in  the  ability  of  Mr.  Sutro  to 
present  the  enterprise  to  Congressmen  and  capitalists  in  its  proper  light 
without  overlooking  or  exaggerating  any  of  its  merits ;  nor  was  it  possible 
to  maintain  in  May,  1867,  what  was  alleged  publicly  at  a  later  date  (April 
15,  1872),  that  704,883  shares,  or  more  than  half  out  of  the  total  capital 
stock  (1,200,000  shares),  had  been  issued  up  to  August  19,  1871,  while 
only  $42,800  had  been  spent  in  the  construction  of  the  tunnel  up  to  July 
1, 1871.^  The  sole  tangible  reason  for  the  lack  of  confidence  professed 
was  the  failure  of  Sutro  to  raise  the  sum  of  $3,000,000  stipulated  in  the 
contracts,  by  sale  of  stock,  within  the  time  first  named  —  one  year 
from  July  31,  1866.  This  failure  was  admitted;  but  Sutro  was  able  to 
rejoin  with  truth  that  the  repudiation  of  the  subscriptions  by  the  mining 
companies  prior  to  the  expiration  of  the  time  conceded  to  him  by  contract 
was  a  fatal  obstacle  to  his  attempts  to  raise  the  stipulated  sum  within  the 
allotted  time,  and  that  the  extension  of  his  privilege  for  a  year  longer, 
granted  by  eleven  companies  of  the  twenty-three  original  signers  of  the 
contracts  in  April,  1866,*  would  have  enabled  him  to  secure  the  sum  named, 
in  all  probability,  if  the  twelve  remaining  companies  had  been  equally 
liberal.  The  companies  were  of  course  not  bound  to  make  this  extension 
or  to  ratify  subscriptions  pledged  conditionally  by  their  trustees ;  but 
some  other  cause  must  be  assigned  for  their  action  than  the  professed 
distrust  of  Sutro  as  a  competent  financial  agent.  His  success  in  negotiat- 
ing the  sale  of  the  tunnel  stock  during  the  year  1866  was,  under  the 
circumstances,  remarkable. 


'  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  869.  =  The  Bank  of  California  against  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  34. 

3  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  858 ;  Argument  of  Mr.  Thomas  Sunderland,  Attorney  for  Comstock  Lode  Mining 
Companies. 

■*  Bank  of  California  against  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  18. 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATER.  239 

The  second  reason  assigned  for  the  withdrawal  of  the  support  of  the 
mining  companies  remains  to  be  examined — the  alleged  unserviceability 
of  the  proposed  tunnel.  In  1866  its  value  as  a  drainway,  at  least,  was 
generally  recognized ;  in  1867  this  special  utility  was  seriously  questioned. 
It  was  averred  that  the  original  contracts  had  been  made  by  the  min- 
ing companies  at  a  time  when  the  amount  of  water  encountered  by  the 
miners  on  the  lode  was  a  baffling  obstacle  to  the  progress  of  exploration ; 
but  a  year  later  this  dangerous  water-belt  had  been  passed,  as  was  main- 
tained, by  the  deeper  shafts,  which  were  entering  a  comparatively  dry 
section  of  the  lode.  It  is  doubtful  whether  sufficient  progress  had  been 
made  in  May,  1867,  to  confirm  any  such  conclusion ;  but  men  are  some- 
times able  to  persuade  themselves  of  the  truth  of  a  proposition  which  they 
are  anxious  to  believe  without  sufficient  evidence.  The  mine  managers 
hoped  that  the  quantity  of  water  in  the  lode  would  decrease  as  the  depth 
of  the  workings  increased,  because  the  annual  rainfall  in  the  district  was 
extremely  light,  and  they  presumed  that  the  surface  water  would  be  grad- 
ually absorbed,  arrested,  and  diverted  in  its  passage  downward  through  the 
lode.  They  did  not  consider  fully  the  porous  character  of  the  decomposed 
feldspathic  rocks  which  formed  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  earth-crust 
throughout  the  district,  or  estimate  the  aggregate  volume  of  the  filtration 
since  the  formation  of  the  fissure;  yet  it  was  certain  that  the  progress  of 
the  development  of  the  lode,  as  a  whole,  was  less  impeded  by  water  in 
1867  than  in  the  preceding  year.  From  the  lack  of  any  complete  or 
trustworthy  statistics  it  can  never  be  determined  satisfactorily  whether 
the  amount  of  water  raised  in  1867  differed  materially  from  the  quantity 
pumped  out  in  1866,  but  it  was  assuredly  removed  more  rapidly  and 
easily. 

Four  years  of  experience  had  taught  valuable  lessons,  and  the  pumps 
set  up  during  1866  on  the  line  of  the  lode  were  powerful  enough  in  most 
instances  to  cope  with  the  water.  The  little  pumps  and  hoisting-tanks 
used  at  first  were  discarded,  and  the  shiftless  method  of  sinking  shafts 
and  relying  on  chance  to  avoid  a  water-chamber  was  generally  abandoned. 
The  water  was  confessedly  a  most  formidable  antagonist  along  the  whole 
line  of  the  lode,  and  its  power  was  more  nearly  measured.     It  was  known 


240  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

that  the  relief  proposed  by  the  tunnel  would  be  a  slow  remedy,  and  that 
for  several  years  certainly  pumping-engines  would  be  the  sole  reliance; 
therefore  the  attack  upon  the  water  no  longer  resembled  the  efforts  of 
Mrs.  Partington  with  her  mop,  but  was  well  supported  and  effective.  The 
Gould  &  Curry  Mine,  for  example,  had  been  one  of  the  wettest  on  the  lode, 
and  work  in  its  new  shaft,  the  Bonner,  had  been  suspended  during  1866 
because  of  the  inpouring  floods  of  water;  yet  when  a  120-horse-power 
engine  was  set  up  in  December,  1866,  and  pumping  actively  resumed, 
the  water  which  stood  more  than  100  feet  deep  in  the  shaft  was  soon 
lowered  to  its  bottom  at  the  725-foot  level,  and  progress  in  depth  was 
again  practicable.  Sufficient  advance  was  made  in  this  and  others  of  the 
deeper  shafts  during  the  next  six  months  to  assure  the  superintendents 
that  they  were  at  least  holding  their  own  in  the  contest,  even  if  they  were 
not  entering  a  drier  belt  of  rock,  as  was  generally  supposed. 

If  the  water  could  then  be  held  in  check  or  mastered  by  pumps  without 
the  aid  of  the  tunnel,  the  only  question  which  the  mining  companies  had 
need  to  consider  was  whether  the  cost  of  pumping  was  likely  to  be  greater 
or  less  than  the  tribute  which  they  were  obliged  to  pay  for  the  service  of 
drainage  of  $2  for  every  ton  of  ore  raised.  While  the  mines  were  barren 
this  service  would  be  performed  gratuitously,  and  the  contract  would  be 
wholly  favorable  to  the  mining  companies ;  but  when  the  mines  were  pro- 
ductive it  was  alleged  that  the  profits  of  the  Tunnel  Company  would  be 
far  in  excess  of  the  value  of  the  service  rendered;  for,  except  as  a  drain- 
way,  the  utility  of  the  tunnel  to  the  mine  stockholders  was  not  clearly 
demonstrable.  As  a  method  of  ventilating  the  mines  it  did  not  commend 
itself  especially.  It  would  provide  no  means  of  escape  for  the  miners  in 
the  event  of  danger  by  flood  or  fire  which  connecting  galleries  from  shaft 
to  shaft  would  not  afford.^  It  would  offer  a  convenient  mode  of  access 
to  reduction-works  on  the  Carson  River,  but  it  was  doubted  whether  such 
works  would  increase  materially  the  profits  of  the  mine  stockholders, 
though  they  might  occasion  serious  loss  to  the  mill-owners  of  the  district. 
Furthermore,  all  the  mine  stockholders  were  not  favorably  impressed  with 

'  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  26-44.  Official  L«tters  to  Brevet  Major  General  H.  G.  Wright,  Senior  Officer, 
Sutio  Tunnel  Commission;  from  Superintendents  of  the  Ophir,  Gould  &  Curry,  Hale  &  Norcross,  Savage, 
Chollar-Potosi,  Imperial  &  Empire,  and  Yellow  Jacket  Mining  Companies. 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATER.  241 

the  representations  of  Mr.  Sutro,  that  the  necessity  of  levying  assessments 
might  be  partially  avoided  through  the  income  of  shares  in  the  Tunnel 
Company.     Many  desired  to  buy  and  hold  the  stock  of  a  given  mine  only 
when  that  mine  was  in  bonanza,  and  intended  to  dispose  of  their  shares 
at  a  premium  before  the  known  ore-body  was  completely  exhausted.     To 
prospect  barren  mines,  or  to  contribute  for  that  purpose,  was  foreign  to 
their  design,  and  when  their  mine  was  productive  a  tax  of  |2  per  ton  was 
esteemed   a   costly  tribute  to  the  Tunnel  Company,  unless  it  could  be 
shown  that  the  current  expenses  of  pumping  would  be  greater  than  the 
amount  paid  for  the  other  system  of  drainage.     If  it  had  been  the  com- 
mon practice  to  hold  the  stock  of  a  given  mine  continuously  as  a  per- 
manent investment,  the  proposition  to  hold  tunnel  stock  in  conjunction 
with  it  might  have  been  viewed  more  favorably,  as  the  outlay  required 
would  have  included  the  first  cost  of  the  pumping  machinery  as  well  as  the 
expense  of  maintenance  and  use ;  but  as  mining  shares  were  bought  very 
largely  for  speculative  purposes  or  as  temporary  investments  simply,  the 
cost  of  the  standing  plant  and  the  future  needs  of  a  mine  were  not  com- 
monly considered;  for  the  marketvalue  of  the  Comstock  Mines  depended  little 
upon  their  assets  represented  by  plant,  and  as  long  as  the  working  machinery 
was  fairly  serviceable,  stockholders  for  a  day  did  not  trouble  themselves  to 
inquire  how  long  it  would  last  or  what  would  be  the  expense  of  its  replace- 
ment.    This  standpoint  was  undoubtedly  a  narrow  and  self-interested  one ; 
but  as  mining  is  presumedly  a  speculation  and  not  a  philanthropic  enter- 
prise, investors  have  clearly  the  right  to  buy  and  sell  as  they  choose.     It 
was  contended  by  some,  also,  that  the  shafts  of  the  leading  mines  would  be 
extended  considerably  below  the  level  at  which  the  Sutro  Tunnel  would 
enter  the  lode  before  it  could  possibly  be  completed.     Hence  the  tunnel 
would  not  drain  these  mines  completely  without  the  aid  of  pumps  if  water 
was  encountered  in  the  lower  levels,  and  the  cost  of  maintaining  and 
operating  an  expensive  mine-plant  must  still  be  defrayed  in  addition  to 
the  tribute  paid  to  the  Tunnel  Company.     Others,  again,  were  unwilling 
to  make  contracts  in  the  dark,  as  it  were,  while  the  quantity  of  water 
which  would  be  drained  from  the  lode  by  the  tunnel  was  absolutely 
16  H  c 


242  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

unknown,  and  the  true  value  of  the  service  was  consequently  undeter- 
mined. If  the  tunnel  should  be  found  necessary  or  serviceaole  when 
constructed,  they  were,  of  course,  ready  to  pay  whatever  its  service  was 
worth,  but  did  not  care  to  estimate  that  service  at  so  high  a  rate  in 
advance.  Perhaps,  if  they  made  no  guaranty,  the  tunnel  might  never 
be  constructed,  but  they  were  prepared  to  take  this  risk  and  suffer  what- 
ever losses  might  befall  them  from  the  lack  of  such  a  drainway. 

The  wish  to  terminate  the  contracts  with  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company 
was  not  inexplicable,  therefore,  on  the  ground  of  an  honest  change  of  opin- 
ion during  1866  and  a  more  careful  consideration  of  personal  interests. 
The  scheme  had  been  thoroughly  discussed  and  examined  since  it  had  been 
brought  prominently  before  the  public  by  the  signature  of  the  contracts 
and  the  act  of  Congress,  and  it  is  idle  to  affirm  that  the  general  oppo- 
sition to  the  terms  of  the  contracts  when  the  subscriptions  were  repudi- 
ated, in  1867,  arose  at  the  nod  of  the  Bank  of  California  alone.     This 
change  of  mind  might  be  prejudicial  to  the  Tunnel  Company  and  Mr. 
Sutro's  personal  interests;   but  in  so  far  as  it  was  an  honest  decision, 
whether  based  on  mistaken  views  of  self-interest  or  not,  the  Tunnel 
Company  had  no  ground   for   complaint.     The  disappointment  to  Mr. 
Sutro  was  a  personal  consideration  entirely.     The  Tunnel  Company  had 
only  themselves  to  blame  for  lack  of  foresight  in  contracting  to  raise  the 
specified  amount  of  capital  in  an  inadequate  time.     If  any  persons  advo- 
cated the  repudiation  of  the  subscriptions  and  opposed  an  extension  of 
the  time  granted  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  for  obtaining  the  stipu- 
lated capital  of  $3,000,000  in  order  to  wrest  the  tunnel  franchise  from 
Mr.  Sutro,  their  action  is  indefensible.     If  the  influence  of  the  Bank  of 
California  was   exerted   to   this   end,  the   course   of  its  managers  was 
supremely  selfish.      This   point,  however,  has  never  been  proved,  and 
there  is  no  satisfactory  evidence  of  it  extant,  though  Mr.  Sutro  was  fully 
convinced  that  this  was  the  secret  of  the  formidable  opposition  arrayed 
against  him.    He  refused  to  see  that  stockholders  in  the  mining  companies 
could  honestly  consider  the  tribute  stipulated  by  contract  an  exorbitant 
tax  and  could  heartily  oppose  the  construction  of  the  tunnel  while  this 
specification  was  in  force.     It  might  be  supposed  that  the  contracts  were 


THE  CONTEST  WITH  WATEE.  243 

void  through  the  laches  of  the  Tunnel  Company,  and  so  the  mining  com- 
panies contended;  but  this  point  was  never  conceded  by  Mr.  Sutro,  and 
subsequent  acts  of  Congress  apparently  confirmed  his  position,  though  a 
decision  of  the  Supreme  Court  could  alone  determine  the  question  finally; 
therefore,  as  long  as  the  possibility  of  exacting  this  tax  hung  over  the 
heads  of  the  mine  stockholders  who  questioned  its  justice,  so  long  they 
fought  strenuously  against  the  tunnel  project.  Mr.  Sutro  could  see,  how- 
ever, only  one  cause  for  the  failure  of  his  plans— the  unscrupulous  avarice 
of  the  Bank  of  California,  a  gigantic  monopoly  in  his  eyes,  grinding  the  faces 
of  the  poor,  and  determined  to  crush  out  every  enterprise  which  interfered 
with  its  scheme  of  oppression.  He  proclaimed  his  convictions  earnestly 
and  persistently,  never  losing  an  opportunity  to  assail  his  enemy  and  cham- 
pion his  own  cause.  Realizing  the  difficulties  of  his  undertaking  he 
worked  day  and  night  to  overcome  them^ — visiting  New  York,  Wash- 
ington, London,  and  the  European  capitals,  presenting  and  urging  his 
project — inspecting  the  principal  mines  and  studying  their  characteristics, 
obtaining  the  approval  of  his  plan  by  eminent  authorities  in  mining  engin- 
eering abroad  and  in  this  country,  and  winning  just  praise  for  his  personal 
enterprise  and  indomitable  ardor.  He  wanted  money,  however,  more  than 
sympathy,  and  for  some  years  he  could  get  few  cash  subscriptions  for 
the  stock  of  his  company.  Meanwhile  a  great  corporation  was  gaining 
an  extended  control  of  the  Comstock  Lode. 

'  "The  Sutro  Tunnel,"  pp.  882,883. 


CHAPTEE    XIII. 
A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION. 

The  directors  of  the  Bank  of  California  liad  determined,  in  tlie  spring 
of  1864,  to  establish  a  branch  bank  at  Virginia  City,  and  it  was  necessary 
for  them  to  select  some  agent  to  whom  this  important  trust  could  be  con- 
fided. Their  choice  fell  upon  William  Sharon,  a  comparatively  unknown 
man,  who  had  acquired  a  moderate  fortune  as  a  merchant  in  California  but 
had  lost  it  as  a  speculator  in  mining  stocks.  Yet  though  unsuccessful  in 
his  last  venture  he  was  by  no  means  a  man  whom  reverses  of  fortune 
could  dishearten,  nor  was  he  disposed  to  abandon  the  hope  of  retrieving 
his  losses  in  the  same  field  of  speculation.  The  cashier  of  the  Bank  of 
California  had  given  him  employment  in'adjusting  some  financial  compli- 
cations in  Nevada  which  threatened  to  prove  losses,  and  his  able  execution 
of  this  charge  was  undoubtedly  the  determining  cause  of  his  appointment 
as  manager  of  the  new  bank  establishment.^  None  saw  in  him  at  this 
time  the  destined  successor  of  William  A.  Stewart  as  the  dominating  figure 
on  the  Comstock  Lode.  A  small,  though  compactly  formed,  person,  quiet 
in  manner,  and  reserved  to  the  point  of  coldness,  he  was  to  all  outward 
seeming  the  antitype  of  the  burly,  frank-spoken,  domineering  lawyer,  who 
was  described  with  half  indignant  Washoe  humor,  reproducing  something 
of  the  broad  effects  of  a  Rabelaisian  sketch,  as  "towering  above  his  fellow 
citizens  like  the  Colossus  of  Rhodes,  and  having  as  much  brass  in  his 
composition  as  that  famous  statue  ever  had."  Yet  points  of  similarity 
were  not  lacking.  Both  were  men  of  strong  will,  positive  opinions,  and 
prompt  action.  Both  were  capable  of  forming  large  plans,  and  were  alike 
fertile  in  expedients;  but  there  the  likeness  ended.  Mr.  Stewart  was  impa- 
tient of  opposition,  and  executed  his  measures  with  a  directness  and  bold- 
ness which  savored  of  recklessness.     Mr.  Sharon  waited  coolly,  though  not 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  November  21,  1874. 
(244) 


A  0ONTEOLLI]:^G  COMBINATION.  246 

sluggishly,  until  in  his  judgment  the  time  was  ripe  for  action,  relying  rather 
on  a  quick  perception  to  avail  himself  of  the  propitious  moment  than  on 
a  stubborn  determination  to  constrain  the  smile  of  fortune.  One  was  by 
nature  a  leader  and  an  actor;  the  other  was  a  director  and  a  strategist. 
The  advocate  was  always  in  the  foreground;  the  financier  was  in  the  front 
or  rear,  as  best  suited  his  designs.  The  former  might  sometimes  be  blinded 
by  passion  to  his  own  interests;  the  latter,  never.  In  short,  Mr.  Stewart 
was  the  natural  i"epresentative  of  the  seething,  unruly  mining  camp,  dis- 
turbed by  conflicting  passions  and  factions,  where  the  commanding  pres- 
ence of  the  individual  counts  for  more  than  the  abstract  sovereignty  of 
the  law ;  and  Mr.  Sharon  was,  in  a  sense,  the  embodiment  of  a  new  period, 
where  organization  was  to  triumph  over  anarchy  and  cool  calculations  of 
self-interest  were  to  be  the  only  recognized  basis  of  action.  The  budding 
of  the  new  order  of  things  may  be  fairly  said  to  date  from  the  appearance 
of  Mr.  Sharon  upon  the  Gomstock  Lode  in  the  spring  of  1864,  and  after  Mr. 
Stewart's  election  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  from  Nevada,  Decem- 
ber 15,  1864,^  the  unfolding  of  the  bud  was  rapid. 

When  the  agent  of  the  Bank  of  California  came  to  Virginia  City  the  local 
banking-houses  were  loaning  money  to  the  mill  owners  and  other  business 
men  of  the  district  at  high  rates  of  interest,  ranging  usually  from  3  to  5  per 
cent,  per  month, ^  and  it  was  commonly  believed  that  they  had  entered 
into  an  informal  agreement  to  fix  and  sustain  this  exorbitant  tariff.  Mr. 
Sharon  at  once  offered  loans  on  good  security  at  2  per  cent,  per  month,  and 
existing  combination  was  dissolved  in  conseciuence.  Mill  and  mine  plant 
was  accounted  good  security ;  and  having  faith  in  the  value  and  develop- 
ment of  the  Comstock  Lode  he  did  not  hesitate  to  make  large  advances  to 
both  mine  and  mill  owners — by  direct  loans  and  by  the  allowance  of  over- 
drafts. There  was  a  sharp  competition  among  the  mill-men  to  secure  cus- 
tom, but  the  charges  for  the  reduction  of  ore  were  so  high  that  the  interest 
on  the  loans  could  be  paid  regularly  while  the  mills  were  working  contin- 
uously; but  when  the  ore-supply  failed  from  any  cause,  and  mills  were 
kept  at  work  intermittently  or  stood  idle,  arrears  of  interest  were  allowed 
to  accumulate,  and  in  several  instances  mill  owners  were  constrained 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  16,  1864.  ^I.  L,  Requa  and  others. 


246  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

to  make  over  their  property  to  the  Bank  of  California  in  default  of  payment. 
The  bank  would  undoubtedly  have  been  willing  to  extend  its  accommoda- 
tion to  any  reasonable  point,  as  the  mills  while  standing  idle  were  simply 
a  burden  upon  the  corporation ;  but  the  mill-owners,  in  view  of  the  uncer- 
tain prospect  of  obtaining  ore  enough  for  their  needs,  preferred  to  make 
an  assignment  of  their  mills  rather  than  incur  the  accumulation  of  debt 
which  threatened  them.  No  property  deteriorates  more  rapidly  in  value 
than  mill  property  when  in  disuse.  The  expense  of  a  watchman  and  the 
accumulating  taxes  and  insurance  dues  must  be  paid.  The  heavy  ma- 
chinery, the  pans,  shoes,  and  dies  require  constant  attention  to  keep  them 
in  good  order;  for  if  left  without  care  they  will  rapidly  rust  and  become 
unserviceable.  The  very  framework  of  the  mill,  even,  being  frequently 
made  of  poorly  seasoned  or  unfit  stuff,  will  crack  and  warp  if  neglected, 
so  that  in  a  short  time  it  must  be  extensively  repaired  or  replaced.  If, 
furthermore,  the  supply  of  ore  should  totally  fail,  the  mill  would  become 
practically  worthless  no  matter  how  complete  and  serviceable  its  machinery 
might  be.  Thus,  in  the  White  Pine  mining  district,  a  mill  in  perfect 
order  which  had  cost  $200,000  was  offered  for  sale  at  $5,000^  without 
finding  a  purchaser;  and  Mr.  Sharon  sold  a  mill  near  the  Comstock  Lode 
which  had  cost  him  160,000  for  one-twentieth  of  that  sum.^ 

The  advances  made  by  Sharon  were  amply  covered  by  the  estimated 
value  of  the  mills  while  actively  employed  in  filling  profitable  contracts; 
but  when  supplies  of  ore  failed  the  bank  was  obliged  to  take  possession 
of  mill  after  mill  in  order  to  avoid  the  certain  loss  of  a  forced  sale  by 
auction.  The  first  mill  so  acquired  was  the  Swansea  Mill,  in  Lyon  County, 
in  May,  1866,^  and  twelve  months  later  seven  mills  were  held  by  this  cor- 
poration. The  bank  then  considered  it  advisable  to  make  some  disposal 
of  the  property  which  had  come  into  their  hands;  and  upon  Mr.  Sharon's 
clear  representation  of  the  case  it  was  determined  by  a  number  of  the 
principal  stockholders  in  the  bank  to  organize  a  corporation,  to  be  known 
as  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company,  who  should  purchase  and  manage 
the  mill  property  held  by  the  bank.  This  organization  was  effected  in  June, 
1867,  the  charter  members  being  D.  0.  Mills,  William  Sharon,  Alvinza 


'  Alpheus  Bull,  Trustee.  «  William  A.  Sharon.  'I.  L.  Eequa. 


A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION.  247 

Hayward,  Thomas  Sunderland,  W.  C.  Ralston,  Charles  Bonner,  Thomas 
Bell,  and  William  E.  Barron. 

The  mills  held  by  the  new  corporation  were  useless  unless  ore  could 
be  obtained  in  sufficient  quantity  to  keep  them  at  work,  and  it  was  con- 
sidered that  there  was  no  reasonable  certainty  of  this  supply  unless  the 
ore-producing  mines  on  the  lode  were  controlled  by  the  same  capitalists 
who  owned  the  mills.  Thus  the  institution  of  what  is  popularly  known 
as  the  fortified  monopoly  system  on  the  Comstock  Lode  may  be  said  to 
date  from  the  formation  of  this  corporation.  It  is  not  necessary  to  exam- 
ine the  general  advantages  and  disadvantages  of  this  system.  The  practi- 
cal question  of  importance  is  evidently  whether  its  establishment  was 
prejudicial  to  the  interests  of  the  ordinary  stockholder  in  the  Comstock 
mines  or  to  the  development  of  the  lode  itself.  Under  some  conceivable 
conditions  the  answer  would  be  in  the  affirmative.  Contracts  for  the 
reduction  of  ore  might  have  been  awarded  to  the  lowest  responsible  bidder 
who  would  guarantee  the  best  returns,  and  mills  might  have  been  built  and 
conducted  by  trustworthy  and  competent  agents  of  the  mining  companies, 
paid  by  fixed  salaries  or  by  percentages  of  profits.  Either  of  these  courses 
might  have  been  adopted  to  advantage  in  some  districts,  but  neither  was 
chosen  in  the  present  instance,  and  to  introduce  either  sweeping  changes 
would  have  been  necessary.  The  stockholders  in  the  mines  must  have 
been  persuaded  to  hold  their  stock  as  a  permanent  investment  and  not  for 
speculative  purposes  merely,  and  officers,  agents,  and  employes  of  the  dif- 
ferent companies  must  have  been  selected  who  would  regard  the  interests  of 
the  corporate  bodies,  their  employers,  as  paramount  to  their  own.  When 
stockholders  are  both  greedy  and  careless  they  must  expect  that  their 
agents  will  be  equally  selfish.  The  "piratical  policy  of  gutting  the  mines," 
as  Professor  Raymond  has  concisely  termed  it,  was  advocated  by  the' 
average  stockholder  even  more  strongly  than  by  the  directors  whom  he 
voted  to  place  in  office.  Ore  was  taken  out  more  rapidly  than  the  mills  of 
any  company  could  reduce,  and  the  exhaustion  of  the  ore-body  followed 
in  consequence  so  soon  that  it  was  questionable  whether  the  erection  of 
mills  by  any  company  would  prove  a  profitable  investment. 

The  erection  of  a  mill  by  a  mining   company  is  to  be   advocated 


248  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

ordinarily  when  the  difference  between  the  cost  of  reducing  the  body  of  ore 
in  sight  in  custom  mills  and  in  the  proposed  corporation  mill  will  defray 
the  expense  of  its  construction.  Now,  if  this  ore  is  parceled  out  to  cus- 
tom mills  before  the  corporation  mill  is  built,  as  was  urged  by  the  impatient 
stockholders  in  the  Comstock  Mines,  it  is  difficult  to  fix  a  time  when  the  erec- 
tion of  a  mill  by  a  company  is  justifiable.  Moreover,  when  a  corporation 
mill  was  actually  erected  it  could  only  be  managed  successfully  by  thrifty, 
honest,  and  competent  agents,  and  such  men  could  not  always  be  readily 
secured.  "Like  master,  like  man,"  has  often  been  found  a  true  adage, 
and  the  gross  carelessness  of  stockholders  cannot  be  shielded  by  alleging 
the  negligence  of  agents. 

To  award  contracts  for  reducing  ore  to  the  lowest  responsible  bidder 
appears  the  simplest  feasible  course  under  the  conditions  then  existing,  but 
unfortunately  for  the  mine  stockholder  this  was  rarely  done.  The  number 
of  mills  had  been  steadily  reduced  since  the  end  of  the  year  1863,  but  the 
capacity  of  the  remainder  had  been  so  enlarged  that  competition  was  as 
sharp  as  ever,  except  during  short  periods  of  unusual  productiveness.  In 
order  to  obtain  ore  all  agencies  at  the  command  of  the  competitors  were 
brought  to  bear.  Personal  friendship  with  the  mine  superintendents, 
influence  from  any  source  with  the  controlling  trustees,  persuasion  and 
secret  underbidding  were  resorted  to  without  stint.  In  their  extremity, 
with  certain  loss  and  possible  ruin  staring  them  in  the  face,  it  is  scarcely 
surprising  that  the  means  employed  to  influence  superintendents  or 
trustees  were  often  questionable.  It  is  certain  that  the  custom  of  making 
presents  to  officials,  or  paying  to  them  personally  a  percentage  of  the 
charges  for  reduction,  had  gained  a  dangerous  foothold  in  the  district,^  and 
though  it  may  be  that  the  majority  of  awai"ds  were  not  influenced  by 
pecuniary  considerations,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  personal  favoritism  weighed 
heavily  in  the  balance.  It  was  not  usual  to  award  contracts  on  the  basis 
of  comparative  returns  strictly,  and  this  theoretically  sound  system  was 
not,  therefore,  the  one  which  was  displaced  by  the  organization  of  the 
Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company. 

The  power  of  this  strong  corporation  was  soon  evident.     Its  stock- 

'I.  L.  Eequa,  W.  N.  C.  Maxwell,  and  others. 


A  COXTEOLLIlJfG  COMBINATION.  249 

holders  were  able  to  control  the  ore  reduction  of  the  most  productive 
mines  on  the  lode,  as  they  were  the  principal  owners  in  these  mines. 
Their  seven  mills  were  kept  busy  day  and  night;  others  were  soon 
acquired  by  purchase,  and  within  two  years  from  the  formation  of  the 
corporation  it  was  the  owner  of  seventeen  mills,  which  crushed  the  great 
majority  of  all  ores  reduced  in  the  district.^  If  the  Sutro  tunnel  should 
afford  means  of  reducing  ores  on  the  Carson  River  more  cheaply  than  the 
mills  of  this  corporation  could  afford  to  reduce  them,  it  was  not  surprising 
that  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company  should  be  opposed  to  the  scheme, 
for  success  to  Sutro  might  be  disastrous  to  them.  If  they  contended  against 
the  construction  of  the  tunnel,  therefore,  as  the  owners  of  seventeen  mills, 
it  was  a  natural,  if  selfish,  course,  and  few  existing  corporations  would 
have  the  right  probably  to  cast  the  first  stone  at  them. 

The  construction  of  a  railroad,  connecting  the  Comstock  Mines  with 
the  chain  of  mills  acquired  by  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company,  was  a 
naturally  suggested  measure,  and  it  was  also  another  stumbling-block  in 
the  way  of  the  tunnel  project.  Mr.  Sutro  looked  upon  it  as  a  special 
device  of  the  enemy  for  his  discomfiture,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  believe 
that  a  desire  to  foil  his  plans  was  its  occasioning  cause.  Undoubtedly  the 
stockholders  of  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company,  or,  as  Mr.  Sutro  pre- 
ferred to  style  them,  the  Bank  of  California,  were  not  disposed  to  consider 
Mr.  Sutro's  personal  interests  or  feelings,  for  the  war  of  recrimination 
then  carried  on  was  frankly  bitter;  but  the  organization  of  the  Virginia 
and  Truckee  Railroad  Company  was  planned  by  a  cool  and  calculating 
brain  which  has  rarely,  if  ever,  allowed  personal  animosities  to  interfere 
with  business  interests.  The  lumbering  ore-carts,  dragged  by  plodding 
files  of  mules  on  steep,  muddy,  and  at  times  impassable  roads,  were  a 
constant  eye-sore  to  one  who  liked  to  see  all  the  details  of  silver  production 
carried  on  with  the  easy  and  harmonious  movement  of  a  grand  machine. 
The  blockade  of  a  road  by  snow  in  winter,  or  by  the  mangling  floods  in 
spring,  galled  him ;  the  stoppage  of  a  mill  for  want  of  ore  was  a  positive 
loss  to  him  and  a  keen  annoyance  in  consequence,  for  it  troubled  alike  his 
plans  and  his  pocket.     Accordingly,  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company 

'I.  L.  Eequa. 


250  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

had  not  been  long  in  existence  before  its  projector  decided  to  complete  the 
system  by  which  he  and  his  associates  controlled  the  silver  production  of 
the  Comstock  Lode.  His  plans  were  not  conceived  without  due  forethought, 
but  few  knew  of  his  design  until  it  sprung  in  full  armor  from  his  brain. 

The  scheme  of  a  railroad  or  system  of  tramways  connecting  mines 
and  mills  was  not,  indeed,  a  novel  one.  It  had  been  banded  about  like  a 
shuttlecock  since  Paul,  Harris  &  Coover  had  demonstrated  the  possibility 
of  reducing  the  Comstock  ores  profitably  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  the 
lode.  The  first  Territorial  Legislature,  among  the  hundred  bubbles  which 
it  blew,  had  created  J.  H.  Todman  and  others  a  body  corporate,  by  and 
under  the  name  of  the  Virginia,  Carson  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company, 
with  authority  to  run  lines  like  spider-legs  north,  south,  and  west  from 
Gold  Hill  to  Virginia  City,  Dayton,  Carson  City,  and  the  Truckee  River;  but 
this  liberal  franchise  proved  useless  to  the  grantees.'  A  later  legislature, 
with  even  more  extended  and  magnificent  ideas,  granted  separate  charters 
to  three  applicants,  authorizing  them  to  construct  railways  from  the  sum- 
mit of  the  Sierras  to  Virginia  City,  with  branch  lines  to  all  desired  points;^ 
but  these  charters,  two  of  which  were  morally  certain  to  conflict  if  utilized, 
expired  like  their  predecessor.  Shortly  after  Nevada  became  a  State  the 
dormant  project  was  revived  in  a  somewhat  more  practical  form  by  charters 
granted  to  two  associations,  in  spite  of  the  veto  of  the  governor,  author- 
izing them  to  build  a  railroad  to  the  Truckee  and  Carson  rivers  from  Virginia 
City.^  The  probable  continuance  in  depth  of  the  lode  had  then  been  fairly 
established  and  the  construction  of  such  lines  of  communication  reason- 
ably justified.  The  depression  of  the  mining  industry  at  the  time  and 
the  lack  of  the  necessary  financial  backing  and  executive  ability  caused 
these  roads  to  exist  on  paper  merely.  Unsuccessful  efforts  were  made  to 
dispose  of  one  of  these  really  valuable  charters  to  English  capitalists,*  but 

'  Act  approved  November  29, 1861 ;  Laws  of  the  Territory  of  Nevada,  Gillespie's  Edition,  chap.  LI,  p.  181. 

2  Acts  approved  December  19,  1862,  incorporating  the  Lake  Bigler  and  Virginia  Railroad  Company  and 
the  Virginia  City  and  Silver  City  Railroad  Company,  chaps.  LXVIII  and  LXXVIII;  Act  approved  December 
20,  1862,  incorporatbg  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company,  chap.  CXXVI,  Laws  of  Nevada. 

3  Statutes  of  Nevada,  1864,  1865,  pp.  180-18:i,  331 ;  Acts  incorporating  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad 
Company,  and  granting  J.  W.  Woodruff  and  others  the  right  to  build  a  railroad  from  Virginia  City  to  the  Carson 
River,  passed  March  2  and  March  9,  1865,  respectively. 

••  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  7,  1866. 


A  CONTEOLLING  COMBINATIOlSr.  251 

no  speculator  could  be  persuaded  to  risk  his  fortune  in  the  enterprise; 
and  in  spite  of  certain  spasmodic  throes  the  scheme  remained  a  feebly- 
galvanized  corpse  until  Mr.  Sharon  concluded  to  breathe  the  breath  of  life 
into  the  body.  In  December,  1868,  he  sent  for  Mr.  I.  E.  James,  the  lead- 
ing mine  surveyor  of  the  district,  and  said  to  him  curtly,  without  any 
preface:  "Can  you  run  a  road  from  Virginia  City  to  the  Carson  River?" 
"  Yes ! "  answered  the  surveyor  with  equal  brevity.  "  Do  it,  then,  at  once !" 
said  Mr.  Sharon;  and  the  surveyor  began  work  immediately  to  carry  out 
the  direction  without  further  instructions.  This  characteristic  interview 
has  an  apochryphal  flavor  as  thus  related,  but  is  unquestionably  a  fact. 
About  occurrences  on  the  Comstock  Lode,  if  anywhere  in  the  world,  truth 
often  appears  stranger  than  fiction.  Mr.  Sharon  knew  his  man,  however. 
The  work  begun  by  Mr.  James  and  his  assistants  was  pushed  with  uncom- 
mon ability  and  energy.  Mr.  James  was  well  acquainted  with  the  ground 
to  be  traversed  and  his  judgments  were  alike  rapid  and  accurate.  All 
trained  engineers  will  understand  the  natural  obstacles  in  the  location  of  a 
road  from  a  point  in  the  heart  of  a  mountain  range  6,205  feet  above  sea- 
level  to  an  objective  point  in  a  valley  1,575  feet  below.  A  descent  of 
nearly  1,600  feet  must  be  made  in  a  grade  length  of  13i  miles  from  the 
lode  to  the  Carson  River.  Only  personal  inspection,  however,  will  convey 
an  adequate  idea  of  this  triumph  of  American  engineering  skill.  The  span- 
ning of  ravines  and  the  opening  of  tunnels  enter  into  almost  all  railway 
plans,  but  the  eye  which  attains  the  best  effect  at  the  least  cost  is  not  always 
evident.  The  turns  and  twists  and  convolutions  of  this  road  are  inde- 
scribable; it  winds  along  like  the  trail  of  a  serpent  on  a  rock.  The  maxi- 
mum grade  is  116  feet  to  the  mile,  and  the  total  curvature  in  the  distance 
traversed  is  17  X  360° ;  or,  in  other  words,  the  aggregate  curves  of  the 
road  would  make  17  full  coils  of  the  track  in  the  space  of  131  miles.^ 
This  extraordinary  feat  of  location  was  made  in  thirty  days,  and  before  the 
survey  was  finished  the  work  of  grading  was  begun.  Mr.  Sharon  had 
meanwhile  acquired  the  rights  of  holders  under  old  franchises,  obtained 
the  pledged  co-operation  of  wealthy  associates,  secured  a  charter  for  his 
proposed   corporation  from  the  sitting  legislature  as  the  Virginia  and 

'  Isaac  E.  James,  Superintendent  Sierra  Nevada  Mining  Company. 


252  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Truckee  Railroad  Company,  and  the  passage  of  acts  authorizing  commis- 
sioners to  issue  bonds  of  Ormsby  and  Storey  Counties  as  a  subscription  in 
aid  of  the  new  road  to  the  amount  of  $500,000.^  This  subscription  was 
a  simple  gratuity,  and  was  not  unfrequently  alluded  to  in  later  years — half 
facetiously,  half  regretfully — by  citizens  who  saw  the  treasures  of  the 
mines  flowing  directly  through  their  assistance  into  the  coffers  of  the  rail- 
road company.  In  these  comments  Mr.  Sharon  figures  as  a  financial 
agent  almost  as  captivating  as  the  harper  Glenkindie  in  his  demands  upon 
the  county  treasuries.  There  was  nothing  in  the  gift  itself  to  occasion 
either  regret  or  suspicion.  The  direct  and  certain  benefit  to  the  industries 
of  both  counties,  if  the  road  was  generously  managed,  might  well  have  war- 
ranted the  subsidy,  if  such  grants  are  ever  defensible,  but  a  grave  mistake 
was  committed  in  not  securing  any  pledged  reduction  of  transportation 
rates  or  tariff  of  maximum  charges.  Perhaps  the  railroad  company  would 
not  have  accepted  the  gratuity  if  coupled  with  disagreeable  conditions,  but 
the  experiment  was  at  least  worth  trying.  In  the  enthusiastic  haste  of 
the  voters  the  importance  of  such  a  guarantee  was  unnoticed  or  ignored. 
Mr.  Sharon  knew  how  to  take  advantage  of  the  temper  of  the  people  and 
to  weld  his  iron  at  the  right  moment.  The  grant  was  made  uncondition- 
ally, and  Lyon  County  commissioners  two  weeks  later  were  authorized  to 
issue  an  additional  $75,000,'  coupled  Avith  a  condition,  however,  which 
canceled  the  allowance  after  the  road  was  completed  as  the  company 
failed  to  comply  with  its  specifications.^  Not  content  with  this  large  sub- 
sidy, the  railroad  company  obtained  a  subscription  of  |700,000  *  from  the 
mining  companies  on  the  lode  in  the  form  of  loans  and  direct  donations.* 
Thus  the  sum  of  $1,200,000  was  raised  in  less  than  two  months,  through 
the  financial  ability  of  Mr.  Sharon  and  his  associates,  and  the  construc- 
tion of  the  road  was  definitely  assured. 


'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  9, 1869 ;  Statutes  of  Nevada,  1869,  pp.  43-49  ;  Acts  approved 
January  27  and  February  21,  1869. 

"Statutes  of  Nevada,  1869,  p. 62,  Act  approved  February  15,  1869. 

3  Territorial  Enterprise,  June  8, 1870 ;  Decision  of  Supreme  Court,  State  of  Nevada,  denying  application 
for  a  peremptory  writ  constraining  Commissioners  to  issue  bonds. 

■*  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  14,  1869. 

*  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  16,  1875. 


A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION.  253 

The  energy  with  which  the  work  of  grading  and  equipping  was  pushed 
merits  liigli  praise.  Tlie  road  was  a  short  one,  its  total  length  from  Vir- 
ginia City  to  Carson  being  only  21  miles,  but  its  construction  was  one  of 
the  most  signal  achievements  of  American  mining  enterprise.  Before  the 
middle  of  April  (1869)  750  men  were  at  work  along  the  line  of  the  road,^ 
and  this  number  was  increased  during  the  month  to  1,200,  most  of  whom 
were  Chinese.^  Thirty-eight  camps  were  established  between  Virginia  City 
and  Carson,  and  the  obedient  Chinese  toiled  like  ants  from  morning  to  night, 
spurred  on  continually  by  urgent  supervisors.  Rails  were  ordered  from 
England  in  January  and  shipped  early  in  March,  and  by  Mr.  Sharon's  fore- 
thought other  cargoes  were  conditionally  engaged  in  the  event  of  loss  by 
shipwreck.^  Before  the  arrival  of  the  English  ships  engines  were  built  to 
order,  ties  were  hewn,  and  the  track  made  ready. 

At  7.30  A.  M.,  on  September  28,  1869,  H.  M.  Yerrington,  superintend- 
ent of  the  road,  drove  a  silver  spike  to  secure  the  first  rail  laid  at  Carson 
City,  and  three  hours  later  a  locomotive  was  running  on  the  newly-laid 
track.*  In  six  weeks  all  the  rails  were  laid,  and  in  the  early  evening  of 
the  12th  of  November,  1869,  the  first  locomotive  came  puffing  up  the 
grade  to  Gold  Hill,  hailed  by  a  deafening  din  of  steam-whistles  blown  at 
the  mine  hoisting-works  and  by  the  hearty  cheers  of  an  enthusiastic 
crowd.  The  Gold  Hill  band  played  triumphant  airs;  flags  waved  from 
the  trestle-work  of  the  bridge  spanning  Crown  Point  Ravine  and  from  all 
conspicuous  points  in  the  city.  The  mayor  of  Gold  Hill  and  other  town 
officers  stood  on  the  crest  of  the  hill  to  welcome  Mr.  Sharon  as  he  came 
toward  them  on  the  engine  Lyon.  Yet  the  reception  was  a  suggestive 
contrast  to  the  one  accorded  the  first  governor  of  the  Territory  eight 
years  before.  The  flavor  of  pomposity  and  soaring  pretension  which 
characterized  the  early  city  had  vanished.  The  swelling  turkey-cock  had 
become  an  unobtrusive  fowl  searching  industriously  for  food.  So  the 
greeting  was  informal,  when  Mr.  Sharon  stepped  down  from  the  engine, 
and  the  crowd  moved  off  without  preface  to  an  open  space  close  by,  where 
a  variety  of  liquors  was  displayed.     Mr.  Sharon  invited  the  company  to 

^  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  14,  1809.  ^  Territorial  Enterprise,  June  5,  1869. 

3  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  9,  1869.  *  Gold  Hill  News,  September  28,  1869. 


254  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

drink,  and  when  a  few  bottles  had  been  opened  by  the  dignitaries  the 
thirsty  crowd  swooped  down  upon  the  feast  like  good-natured  harpies, 
causing  it  to  disappear  in  a  moment.  Then  followed  the  inevitable  speech, 
making  by  the  host  and  others,  from  the  only  available  rostrum,  an  empty 
engine-tender;  all,  however,  short,  simple,  and  to  the  point  —  model 
addresses  apparently  of  their  kind.  The  difficulties  mastered  by  the 
designers  and  builders  of  the  road  were  briefly  recounted  and  the  practical 
benefits  of  its  construction  clearly  stated.^  The  speakers  were  frequently 
cheered,  and  when  the  meeting  adjourned  informally  Mr.  Sharon  might 
have  had  any  office  in  the  gift  of  his  hearers  for  the  asking. 

This  popularity  was  in  a  measure,  at  least,  deserved,  for  notwithstand- 
ing the  liberal  allowances,  aggregating  about  $1,200,000,  the  personal 
outlay  of  Mr.  Sharon  and  his  associates  was  very  large.  The  cost  of  the 
road  was  $1,750,000,  or  $83,333  per  mile,  without  reckoning  the  necessary 
equipment,  of  rolling-stock,  machine-shops,  &c,^  and  when,  during  the 
following  year,  it  was  extended  to  Reno,  a  station  on  the  line  of  the  Cen- 
tral Pacific  Railroad,  this  original  outlay  was  more  than  doubled,  though 
the  expenses  were  provided  for  in  part  by  the  issue  of  bonds.  ^  An 
apparently  authorized  statement  made  by  the  editor  of  the  Territorial 
Enterprise,  February  16, 1875,  alleges  that  the  owners  of  the  road  paid  into 
its  treasury  the  round  sum  of  $1,500,000,  in  addition  to  the  amount  obtained 
from  other  sources.*  If  this  assertion  is  correct,  the  risk  of  constructing 
the  road  was  equally  shared,  even  if  its  direct  profits  were  not  divided. 

The  benefits  derived  from  its  completion  were  unmistakable.  Freight 
charges  upon  all  kinds  of  goods  were  immediately  reduced.  The  price  of 
cord-wood  delivered  in  Virginia  City,  a  most  important  item,  fell  from  $15 
to  $11.50,  and  contracts  were  ofi'ered  for  delivery  in  the  spring  of  1870  at 
$9  per  cord.^    Two  dollars  per  ton^  was  charged  for  carrying  ore  from  the 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  November  13, 1869.  -The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  228. 

'  The  official  statement  of  the  road  for  the  year  1880  shows  an  expenditure  upon  construction  account  of 
$3,715,378.23;  for  rolling-stock,  .|712,278.64 ;  for  real  estate,  $206,998.21 ;  and  for  teams,  .$34,047,84 ;  a  total  of 
$4,669,203.12.  Annual  Report  of  H.  M.  Yerrington,  Vice-President  and  General  Superintendent  of  Virginia  and 
Truckee  Railroad,  to  Secretary  of  State  of  Nevada. 

•1  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  16,  1875.  ^  Gold  Hill  News,  January  8,  1870. 

^San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  14,  1869;  United  States  Geological  Exploration  of  the  Fortieth 
Parallel,  vol.  Ill,  Mining  Industry,  p.  163. 


A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION.  255 

mines  to  the  Carson  River  Mills  instead  of  $3.50  per  ton,  as  previously, 
and  the  cost  of  transporting  other  articles  was  proportionally  diminished, 
A  natural  result  of  this  reduction  was  to  bring  into  market  a  large  amount 
of  ore  lying  on  the  mine-dumps  or  still  left  in  the  lode  as  too  poor  to  pay 
the  charges  for  transportion  and  milling.  The  first  ore  shipped  over  the 
railroad  was  7  car-loads,  60  tons  in  all,  from  the  700-foot  level  of  the 
Yellow  Jacket  Mine,  of  a  grade  which  had  been  considered  too  poor  to 
reduce  and  had  been  used  as  waste  rock  to  fill  abandoned  drifts.^  Train 
after  train,  loaded  like  the  first,  ran  down  the  steep  grades  and  round  the 
sharp  curves  to  the  Carson  River  Mills.  The  old  quartz-wagon  teamsters 
saw  the  novel  spectacle  with  dismay.  Their  occupation  was  gone:  "Sharon's 
iron  mules,"  as  they  styled  the  untiring  engines,  dragged  away  their 
accustomed  freight  before  their  very  eyes.  Competition  was  useless,  and  the 
files  of  mules,  with  their  creaking  carts,  soon  disappeared  from  the  roads. 
A  few  stubborn  spirits  made  a  determined  struggle  against  the  inevitable 
monopoly.  Ten  and  twelve -horse  teams  hauled  ponderous  loads  in 
wagons  with  "back-action"  attachments,  at  imminent  risk  of  accident, 
down  the  range  to  the  valley.  One  load  so  dragged  to  a  mill  at  Johntown 
weighed  73,050  pounds,  and  including  the  wagons  90,690  pounds,^  while  loads 
of  25  tons  were  not  uncommon.  The  engineers  on  the  railroad,  however, 
laughed  at  their  competitors,  and  rivaled  one  another  in  successive  trials. 
The  locomotive  Nevada  hauled  112  tons  from  the  lower  dump  of  the  Yel- 
low Jacket  Mine  over  Gold  Hill  and  down  to  the  Carson  River.^  Six 
months  later  the  engine  Comstock  hauled  up  the  Grown  Point  Mine  branch 
track  401,200  pounds  gross,*  and  in  May,  1871,  the  same  engine  dragged 
away  434,120  pounds.'  Yet  even  this  great  load  was  surpassed,  it  is  said, 
by  the  engine  Carson  in  later  trials.^  This  was  too  much  for  flesh  and 
bone  to  match,  and  when  one  of  the  14-horse  teams  ran  off  the  Geiger 
grade,  so-called,  about  five  miles  from  Virginia,  breaking  up  the  wagons 
and  badly  injuring  the  horses,  the  contest  was  practically  at  an  end.'  The 
railroad  soon  held  an  uncontested  monopoly  of  the  freight  business,  and 

'  Gold  Hill  Newe,  November  19,  1869.  ^  xbid.,  April  7,  1870.  ^  jj;^;.^  November  3,  1870. 

*md.,  March  10,  1871.  '■Ibid.,  May  24,  1871. 

'^Ibid.,  June  1,  1871.  ■'Ibid.,  May  20,  1870. 


256  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

from  30  to  45  loaded  trains  were  dragged  daily  over  the  road  from  Virginia 
to  Carson  City.^ 

Ore-product,  reduction,  and  freightage  were  thus  mainly  controlled 
by  Mr.  Sharon  and  his  associates;  but  even  these  profitable  monopolies 
were  not  sufficient  for  their  wants.  They  saw  no  reason  for  conceding  to 
others  any  profits  which  could  be  made  to  flow  into  their  own  coffers;  or, 
perhaps,  it  might  be  said  more  justly  that,  after  the  main  industries  fell 
into  their  hands,  it  was  a  practical  necessity  to  place  them  beyond  the  risk 
of  hindrance  or  interference.  To  insure  certain  independence  the  wood 
and  water  supply  must  be  controlled  by  members  of  their  combination. 
As  long  as  wood  could  be  profitably  cut  in  the  ravines  of  Carson  and 
Washoe  valleys  it  was  not  practicable  to  monopolize  the  product;  but  when 
this  woodland  was  stripped  and  it  was  necessary  for  the  wood-choppers 
to  ascend  the  upper  slopes  of  the  Sierras,  an  opportunity  was  offered  to 
grasp  the  lion's  share  of  the  business.  To  transport  the  hewn  logs  in 
wood-carts  to  saw-mills  in  the  valley  of  the  Carson  or  to  the  line  of  the  rail- 
road was  an  expensive  task.  The  construction  and  repair  of  mountain  wood- 
roads  became  so  costly  that  a  cheaper  method  was  urgently  called  for,  and 
the  need  created  its  own  supply,  as  an  imperative  demand  has  commonly 
done,  in  the  Comstock  mining  district  at  least.  In  several  places  where  the 
slope  was  steep  short  chutes  of  timber  had  been  constructed,  down  which  the 
logs  slid  headlong  to  the  dumps,  leaving  behind  them  trails  of  fire  and 
smoke.  This  was  a  swift  method  of  freightage,  but  it  could  only  be  used 
to  a  limited  extent.  Where  the  declivity  was  slight  the  logs  would  not  glide 
over  dry  timbers,  and  it  was  necessary  to  overcome  this  difficulty.  This 
was  done  by  utilizing  the  brooks  which  flowed  down  the  mountain  sides. 
In  place  of  the  dry  trough  or  chute,  timber  conduits  or  flumes  were  con- 
structed, extending  many  miles  in  winding  lines  among  the  hills,  and  filled 
by  the  influx  of  streams  and  water-ditches  along  their  course. 

The  first  wood  flume  in  practical  operation  was  probably  the  square 
box-flume,  one  mile  in  length,  constructed  by  J.  W.  Haines  during  the 
month  of  August,  1866,  in  Kingsbury  Canon.  This  form  was  soon  shown 
to  be  unsuited  to  the  requirements  of  the  work,  and  a  V-Aume  was  designed 

I  The  Big  Bonauza,  p.  228. 


A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION.  257 

and  constructed  by  Mr.  Haines  during  the  spring  of  the  following  year. 
To  form  this  flume  rough  planks  II  inches  thick,  24  inches  in  breadth, 
and  16  feet  long,  were  joined  at  an  angle  of  90°,  and  the  trough  thus 
made  was  lengthened  by  the  junction  of  similar  sections  with  overlapping 
ends.  The  flume  was  laid  on  the  ground  with  simple  wooden  props,  and 
supported  by  trestle-work  when  ravines  were  crossed.  During  the  follow- 
ing year  the  sections  were  made  to  abut  instead  of  lapping  over,  and  no 
important  change  in  plan  has  since  been  devised ;  though  the  flumes  are 
now  lined  with  boards  to  render  them  more  durable,  and  the  width  of  the 
side-planks  has  been  increased  to  30  and  32  inches.  A.  G.  Cleveland  and 
other  builders  soon  adopted  the  model  thus  given  and  the  success  of  the 
enterprise  was  assured.  Saw-mills  were  erected  at  suitable  points  in  the 
mountains,  and  timbers  were  then  borne  down  to  the  valleys,  like  firewood, 
from  the  summit  of  the  Sierras.  At  first  the  descent  of  the  flume  line 
was  only  II  inches  to  the  rod,  and  in  order  to  maintain  this  grade  they 
wound  about  hills,  skirted  the  edge  of  precipices,  and  crossed  deep  canons 
on  lofty  trestles.  Timbers  and  wood  glided  down  the  current,  at  short 
intervals,  in  a  long  procession,  without  crowding  or  jamming  against  one 
another,  until  they  were  thrown  forth  at  length  from  the  end  of  the  flume 
upon  a  dump  in  the  valley.  But  when  reservoirs  stored  the  mountain 
drainage  and  with  creeks  and  lakes  supplied  strong  flowing  streams,  then 
the  grade  of  the  flumes  was  raised  in  places  to  an  elevation  of  four  feet  to 
the  rod  and  the  water  fall  was  a  sheet  of  foam.  Massive  timbers  thirty- 
two  feet  long  were  hurled  down  these  rapids  like  arrows  from  a  bow,  while 
the  flume  trembled  with  their  motion  and  the  water  was  banked  up  before 
them  in  white  curling  mounds  like  breaking  surf.  When  a  jam  took  place 
the  heavy  beams  were  shot  against  the  block  by  the  water  catapult  with  a 
splintering  crash,  until  the  passage  was  cleared  by  workmen  or  a  more 
powerful  head  of  water  swept  away  the  obstacle  with  resistless  pressure. 
Thousands  of  acres  of  woodland  were  thus  utilized  which  could  never  have 
been  reached  by  teams,  and  abundant  supply  of  timber  and  fuel  was  assured. 
When  the  profits  which  could  be  derived  from  flume  construction 
became  evident,  Mr.  Haines  applied  for  a  patent  upon  his  device,  which  was 

17    H   0 


258  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

granted  inl871.  Then  he  began  suits  against  alleged  infringers.  Among 
these  were  William  Sharon  and  associates,  who  had  not  failed  to  recognize 
the  merits  of  the  invention  if  not  of  the  designer.  The  suit  of  James  W. 
Haines  vs.  William  Sharon  et  al.  was' brought  to  trial  August  7,  1872;  but 
the  plaintiff  failed  to  recover  damages,  as  his  patent  was  adjudged  to  be 
invalid  on  the  ground  that  the  invention  had  been  in  common  use  for  two 
years  before  an  application  for  patent  had  been  flled.^  Thus  the  defend- 
ants were  permitted  to  enjoy  their  flume  privilege  undisputed  as  well  as 
their  other  sources  of  income.  Unless  water  could  be  obtained,  however, 
their  wood  supply  was  likely  to  be  of  little  service. 

During  the  years  immediately  following  the  discovery  of  the  lode  the 
growing  towns  on  the  slopes  of  Mount  Davidson  and  Gold  Hill  procured 
an  irregular  but  sufficient  supply  of  water  from  the  short  tunnels  which 
honeycombed  the  hillsides.  If  ledges  were  not  cut,  or  were  found  to  be 
barren,  the  tunnels  were  abandoned,  but  the  work  was  not  wholly  fruit- 
less. From  the  mouths  of  nearly  all  rivulets  of  water  trickled,  and  from 
a  few  streams,  which  might  be  called  brooks,  flowed  throughout  the  year. 
While  the  towns  were  merely  straggling  lines  of  cabins  any  one  who  chose 
might  dip  a  pail  into  the  streams,  or  drain  off  a  portion  of  the  water  into 
troughs  and  shallow  pits,  for  household  use;  but  when  the  camps  became 
municipalities,  the  rivulets  began  to  have  a  recognized  market  value. 
Tunnel  and  mining  companies,  whose  search  for  ore  had  been  unrewarded, 
found  an  unlooked-for  source  of  revenue  in  the  barren  rock.  Water  was 
as  readily  salable  as  ore,  and  the  demand  for  it  was  imperative.  The  bus- 
iness houses  and  residences  in  the  towns,  the  mills,  and  the  mine  hoisting- 
works  needed  a  constantly  increasing  and  certain  supply,  and  were  forced 
to  pay  a  round  sum  for  the  quantity  used.  In  some  instances  the  engines 
at  the  mines  raised  all  the  water  required  for  their  boilers  from  their  own 
shafts,  but  as  this  mine-water  was  generally  impure  and  its  use  occasioned 
a  rapid  formation  of  scale,  the  mining  companies  preferred  the  water  which 
flowed  from  tunnel  levels  nearer  the  surface. 

To  control  the  sale  of  this  tunnel-water  two  corporations,  the  Virginia 
Water  Company  and  the  Gold  Hill  Water  Company,  were  formed,  and  con- 

'  Report  of  O.  D.  Wheeler,  Special  Agent  Tenth  Ceusus,  "Flumes  and  Flumiug  Operations  in  Western 
Nevada." 


A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION^.  259 

solidated  May  12,  1862,  as  the  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company, 
with  an  enlarged  capital  stock  of  $250,000,  and  the  new  company  took 
measures  at  once  to  secure  all  the  available  water  and  provide  for  its  dis- 
tribution.^ Before  September,  1863,  they  had  bought  or  leased  the  streams 
flowing  from  seven  tunnels,  the  principal  water  sources,  and  conducted 
them  through  flumes  and  ditches  into  large  cisterns,  from  which  the  water 
was  distributed  to  all  points  in  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill.  The  mains 
first  laid  were  wooden  boxes,  roughly  joined,  and  placed  on  or  near  the 
surface,  with  branch-pipes  of  lead  tubing.  In  August,  1863,  iron  supply- 
pipes  were  laid  in  South  C  street,  and  were  thenceforth  substituted  for 
wood  to  a  considerable  extent.^  If  the  supply  had  been  commensurate 
with  the  demand  the  profits  of  the  company  would  have  been  extraordi- 
nary, but  the  amount  obtainable  was  so  scanty  that  it  was  necessary  to 
dole  it  out  at  exorbitant  rates. 

In  October,  1863,  only  56i  flowing  inches  of  water  could  be  obtained 
for  the  use  of  Virginia  City,  48  of  which  came  from  the  Santa  Rita  Tun- 
nel alone,^  and  if  the  stream  from  the  last-named  tunnel  decreased,  as 
appeared  probable,  a  water  famine  was  imminent.  Thus,  while  the  mines 
were  plagued  by  the  influx  of  water,  the  miners  were  in  danger  of  suffer- 
ing from  thirst,  a  situation  best  described  by  the  paradox  of  Coleridge. 
Fortunately  the  supply  was  maintained  with  slight  diminution  until  the 
melting  of  the  winter  snows  refilled  the  springs.  Every  succeeding  year, 
as  the  city  grew,  the  peril  of  water-drought  increased;  every  year  the 
record  was  repeated — flumes  and  pijDes  running  full  in  spring  and  half 
empty  in  autumn.  The  price  to  mills  and  other  large  consumers  was 
fixed  at  $100  per  flowing  inch  monthly,  and  families  procured  a  scanty 
supply,  as  a  favor,  at  an  average  cost  of  $1  per  week,  exclusive  of  the 
charge  for  introducing  service -pipes.*  Many  householders,  who  were 
unwilling  or  unable  to  pay  this  tax,  did  not  scruple  to  help  themselves  at 
will  from  the  wooden  conduits  or  flumes,  and  the  Water  Company  was 
obliged  to  wink  at  this  usage,  as  they  could  well  afford  to  do,  for  their 
profits  grew  in   spite  of  the   leakage.     Up  to  August,  1863,  they  had 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  March  2,  1865.     ,  ^  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  26,  1863. 

*  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  27,  1863.  ■•  Gold  Hill  News,  March  2,  1865. 


260  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

expended  $105,000  in  the  purchase  of  water-rights  and  the  construction 
of  their  supply-system.  Several  dividends  of  2  and  2i  per  cent,  had 
been  paid,  in  addition  to  a  regular  monthly  allowance  of  |5  on  every  one 
of  the  1,000  shares  of  stock.^  The  receipts  of  the  company  for  the  half 
year  ending  January  1,  1864,  were  |47,386  and  their  expenses  $15,016, 
showing  a  balance  of  $32,370.^  During  the  spring  and  early  summer  the 
receipts  were  much  greater  and  the  expenses  considerably  less,  as  through- 
out the  winter  the  water  in  pipes  and  flumes  was  constantly  freezing,  and 
a  large  force  of  laborers  was  often  employed  in  the  work  of  keeping  the 
cisterns  full.^  With  succeeding  years  the  profits  increased,  and  every 
effort  was  made  to  obtain  water  from  the  hills  about  the  city.  The  drain- 
age was  so  complete  that  from  the  shorter  tunnels  the  water  ceased  to 
flow  except  during  the  spring  months,  and  only  the  longer  and  deeper 
tunnels  afforded  a  permanent  supply.  The  Santa  Rita  Tunnel  was  still 
the  main  reliance*  until  the  Cole  Tunnel,  a  prospecting  adit  cut  from  the 
base  of  Cedar  Hill,  reached  the  quartz  seam  from  which  the  Santa  Rita 
Company  derived  their  water.  As  two  laborers  were  picking  at  the  face 
of  the  drift  (January  7,  1867)  the  rock  suddenly  gave  way  and  a  fountain 
of  water  gushed  out  with  such  force  that  the  men  were  driven  back  to 
the  mouth  of  the  tunnel.^  The  size  of  the  stream  decreased  in  a  few 
weeks  until  only  135  inches  of  water  flowed  through  the  tunnel;"  but  this 
current  was  more  valuable  than  an  ordinary  mine.  The  flow  through 
the  Santa  Rita  Tunnel  ceased  at  once,  and  the  Water  Company  removed 
their  useless  flume  upon  the  adverse  decision  of  a  motion  to  enjoin  the 
Cole  Company  from  diverting  their  water.  It  was  ruled  that  the  tunnel  of 
the  Cole  Company  was  a  mining  work,  begun  and  prosecuted  in  good 
faith  to  cut  a  ledge  with  well-defined  croppings  located  by  the  company. 
The  incidental  subdrainage  of  another  tunnel  was  unavoidable,  and  the 
injury  was  not  sufficient  ground  for  the  issuance  of  an  injunction.  Conse- 
quently the  Virginia  City  Water  Company  was  obliged  to  make  a  new 
bargain  with  the  Cole  Company  to  obtain  the  water,  which  was  leased  to 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  26,  1863.  ^  Sacramento  Union,  February  1,  1864. 

3  Gold  Hill  News,  March  2,  1865.  '     ■•  Virginia  City  Union,  November  24, 1866. 

6  Gold  Hill  News,  January  9,  1867.  «  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  17,  1869. 


A  CONTROLLING  COMBINATION.  261 

them  at  |40  per  inch  monthly.^  The  supply  was  still  far  below  the  demand, 
and  the  Water  Company  were  obliged  to  eke  out  their  allowance  to  the 
towns  by  turning  the  water  pumped  up  from  the  mine-shafts  into  their 
cisterns  and  flumes.  This  water  was  often  unfit  to  drink,  or  to  use  in 
engine  boilers  even,  owing  to  its  impregnation  with  foreign  substances, 
especially  when  it  had  been  lying  stagnant  for  years  in  the  mine-levels; 
yet,  in  default  of  better,  it  was  used  as  sparingly  as  possible.  During  the 
summer  months  of  1870  the  water  from  the  new  shaft  of  the  Ophir  Mine 
furnished  the  main  supply,^  though  the  water-level  in  the  flume  was  marked 
distinctly  with  blue  lines,  and  the  unfortunate  people  who  drank  it  per- 
force were  disgusted  and  sickened.^  Owing  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
flumes  the  water  circulating  through  Gold  Hill  was  almost  precisely  the 
same  as  that  furnished  to  Virginia  City;  but  each  city  was  shrewdly 
encouraged  to  believe  itself  the  favored  one,  and  forgot  its  own  disgust 
partially  in  viewing  the  supposed  greater  misery  of  its  neighbor.*  Pure 
water  became  so  precious  that  the  Cole  Company  refused  to  renew  their 
lease  when  it  expired  in  1870,  and  proceeded  to  lay  a  second  system  of 
pipes  and  flumes  side  by  side  with  those  already  in  place.®  The  Virginia 
City  Water  Company  had  apparently  foreseen  this  rivalry,  for  they  indi- 
rectly urged  on  the  excavation  of  another  adit,  the  Nevada  Tunnel,  to 
pass  directly  below  the  tunnel  of  the  Cole  Company.  This  work  was 
pushed  night  and  day.  The  Cole  Company  tried  to  impede  it  by  applying 
for  an  injunction  to  restrain  the  prosecution  of  the  work  and  by  sinking 
a  shaft  to  intercept  it;  but  the  application  was  not  granted,  and  the  shaft 
was  adroitly  passed.  Twenty  feet  below  the  level  of  their  adit  the  Nevada 
Tunnel  entered  the  barren  quartz  seam  which  had  proved  a  bonanza  to 
both  the  Santa  Rita  and  Cole  companies,  and  the  latter  company  saw  its 
water  disappear  just  as  its  system  of  pipes  was  nearly  completed  (Novem- 
ber 25,  1870).^    The  disgust  of  its   stockholders  was   outspoken — their 

'  J.  B.  Overton,  Superintendent  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company.    Price  formerly  paid  to 
Santa  Rita  Tunnel  Company ;  Virginia  City  Union,  November  24,  1866. 

>  J.  B.  Overton.  s  gold  Hill  News,  October  25,  1870. 

<  J.  B.  Overton. 

^  Territorial  Enterprise,  November  27,  1870. 

»Ibid.,  November  26,  1870. 


2Q2  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

golden  fountain  had  been  carried  off  bodily,  and  their  rich  ledge  had 
become  hopelessly  barren.  Their  attorneys  at  once  filed  a  bill  applying  for 
a  preliminary  injunction  restraining  the  continuance  of  the  water  diver- 
sion until  the  final  hearing;  and  the  order  was  issued  by  Judge  Sawyer 
(February  13,  1871),  as  it  appeared  in  evidence  that  the  Nevada  Tunnel 
was  excavated  to  tap  the  natural  reservoir  of  the  Cole  Company  and  not 
to  develop  any  known  ledge.  Furthermore,  as  the  Cole  Company  held 
the  water  by  the  additional  security  of  a  ledge  location,  antedating  not 
only  the  location  made  by  the  Nevada  Tunnel  Company  but  that  of  the 
Santa  Rita  as  well,  their  prior  right  to  the  water  was  established,  and 
it  was  apparent  that  the  stream  had  been  wrongfully  cut  off  and  diverted.^ 
The  Virginia  City  Water  Company,  after  a  futile  attempt  to  obtain  a 
dissolution  of  this  injunction  from  Justice  Field,^  were  content  to  see  the 
Nevada  Tunnel  effectually  bulkheaded  and  the  water  flowing  from  the  Cole 
Tunnel  as  before.  This  water  was  the  purest;  but  as  the  older  water 
company  supplied  exclusively  the  mills  on  Gold  Canon,  their  revenue  was 
the  largest,  amounting  to  about  $10,000  monthly,  while  the  Cole  Company 
received  an  income  of  from  $5,000  to  $6,000  during  the  same  time.^  The 
people  had  no  more  water  than  before,  and  its  cost  was  no  less,  but  the 
monopoly  of  water  supply  was  at  an  end..  Thus  the  result  of  the  water 
war  was  satisfactory  to  citizens,  who  dreaded  lest  food,  water,  wood,  ore, 
and  all  supplies  should  be  controlled  by  the  Briareus,  whose  arms  were 
extended  over  the  district;  for  Mr.  Sharon  and  his  friends  were  the  prin- 
cipal stockholders  in  the  Virginia  City  Water  Company  and  could  at  any 
time  dispose  of  the  water  as  they  saw  fit.  Still,  their  apportionment  of  it 
was  equitable  enough,  and  if  the  supply -rate  was  high  it  was  not  exorbi- 
tant, if  the  scantiness  of  the  flow  and  the  urgent  demand  for  milling  pur- 
poses are  considered. 

'  United  States  Court  Reports,  Ninth  Ciroait,  Sawyer,  vol.  I,  pp.  470-184. 

2  J6M.,  pp.  685-696. 

'  J.  B.  Overton,  Superintendent  Virginia  and  Gold  HUl  Water  Company. 


CHAPTEE    XIV. 
A    HAZARDOUS    TASK. 

These  various  enterprises  proved  true  bonanzas,  but  when  the  princi- 
pal ones  were  undertalien  their  issue  was  by  no  means  certain.  The  first 
cost  of  the  mills  and  the  railroad  was  very  considerable,  and  it  was  a 
question  of  moment  whether  the  prospective  profits  would  defray  the 
expense  of  construction,  equipment,  and  maintenance  with  interest.  Large 
profits  were  assured  if  sufficient  freight  and  ore  could  be  obtained.  Freight 
business  could  be  had  if  the  mines  remained  productive.  On  this  last 
point  hinged  the  success  of  all  other  enterprises.  When  the  road  was 
built,  the  outlook  appeared  gloomy  to  many.  The  output  of  the  mines 
decreased  in  1869  to  a  little  more  than  half  the  product  of  1867,^  and  signs 
of  a  further  diminution  were  not  wanting.  In  1869  many  practical  miners 
on  the  lode  feared  that  the  ore-deposits  would  be  fewer  and  poorer  as  the 
depth  of  the  mine-workings  increased.  Records  and  experience  in  all 
parts  of  the  world  were  held  to  establish  the  fact  that  the  richest  ores 
were  commonly  found  at  no  great  distance  below  the  surface,  within  a 
range  of  a  few  hundred  feet  usually.  In  other  mines,  moreover,  ore- 
deposits  existed  frequently  as  a  continuous  sheet  or  vein,  broken  or  faulted 
by  natural  forces,  perhaps,  but  still  traceable  with  skill  and  perseverance ; 
but  in  the  Comstock  Lode  the  ore-bodies  did  not  exist  in  any  form  resem- 
bling a  continuous  sheet,  except  in  the  surface  workings  on  Gold  Hill. 
They  were  misshapen,  dislocated  bodies,  scattered  irregularly  through  the 
lode,  resembling  nothing  so  much,  to  borrow  the  vivid  simile  of  a  now 
famous  miner,  as  raisins  in  a  pudding  or  duff.  ^ 

In  1869  all  the  known  bonanzas  were  nearly  exhausted,  and  the  search 
for  others  through  the  heart  of  the  lode  had  not  been  well  rewarded.    The 

'Valueof  Bullion  product,  1867, 113,738,618;  1869,  $7,528,618;  Report  of  United  States  CommisBioner 
of  Mines  and  Mining,  186'J,  p.  113. 

2  John  W.  Mackey.  (263) 


264  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Ophir  deposit  had  failed  long  since;  the  Gould  &  Curry  body  was  nearly 
exhausted;^  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  product  had  fallen  from  |2,677,448 
in  1867  to  |682,004  in  1868;  the  Empire  Mine  had  paid  no  dividends  since 
1867  and  the  Imperial  Mine  paid  only  $24,000  in  1869,  yet  these  two 
mines  embraced  the  richest  section  of  the  Comstock  Lode  at  Gold  Hill  in 
early  years.  Of  the  productive  mines  developed  later  all  showed  a  falling 
off  in  1868  except  the  Savage  and  Overman.  The  ore  of  the  Overman  Mine 
was  of  so  low  a  grade,  milling  only  $17  per  ton,  that  its  value  to  the  mine 
owners  was  inconsiderable,  and  the  exhaustion  of  the  Savage  Mine  bonanza 
must  have  been  foreseen,  as  the  dividends  declared  the  following  year, 
1869,  only  amounted  to  $90,000,  as  contrasted  with  $1,560,000  paid  to 
stockholders  in  1868.  Explorations  in  depth  had  not  been  pushed  far,  it 
is  true,  but  the  indications  revealed  were  certainly  not  promising;  the 
gangue  appeared  to  be  changing  from  predominant  quartz  to  predominant 
carbonate  and  sulphate  of  lime,  a  deposit  which  had  been  hitherto  com- 
paratively barren,^  and  ore-bodies  occurred  less  frequently  and  were  of  less 
extent,  while  the  ores  were  becoming  poorer  and  more  refractory  than  in 
the  superficial  bodies.  Of  the  eleven  ore-bodies  known  to  exist  at  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1868,  the  greater  number  were  completely  or  nearly 
exhausted,  and  no  new  development  of  importance  had  been  made  during 
the  year.'  These  facts  were  well  known  to  all  careful  observers  in  Jan- 
uary, 1869,  and  the  prospect  was  naturally  gloomy.  The  single  ray  of 
light  apparent  was  the  discovery  of  a  small  vein  of  extremely  rich  ore  on 
the  900-foot  level  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  in  the  previous  November.* 
This  was  the  first  considerable  deposit  of  rich  ore  which  had  been  found 
up  to  that  time  at  so  great  a  depth,  and  its  value  as  a  sign  and  beacon  was 
evident.  Whether  this  discovery  was  the  immediate  cause  of  Mr.  Sharon's 
decision  to  form  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company  is  not  known, 
but  that  it  influenced  his  action  is  at  least  probable,  for  no  change  of 
importance  on  or  in  the  lode  at  that  time  escaped  his  notice. 

What  is  termed  luck  is  commonly  the  result  of  swift  comprehension 

'  Product  iu  18(38  only  13,835  tons  of  low-grade  ore.     No  dividends  declared. 
Report  of  United  States  Comtnissiouer  of  Mines,  1868,  pp.  92-97. 
^Ibid.,  p.  97.  *  Territorial  Enterprise,  November  25,  1868. 


A  HAZAEDOUS  TASK.  265 

and  firm  grasp  of  opportunities.  The  organization  of  the  Union  Mill  and 
Mining  Company  and  the  building  of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad 
were,  without  doubt,  measures  of  a  clear-sighted  financial  policy.  That 
both  proved  eminently  profitable  investments  from  the  outset  is  true,  but  it 
should  be  remembered  that  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company  was  organ- 
ized at  a  time  when  mill  property  in  the  district  was  a  drug  in  the  market 
and  that  the  railroad  was  built  when  the  prospects  of  the  lode  were  darkest. 
Whatever  may  be  alleged  with  truth  against  the  men  who  then  controlled 
the  product  of  the  Comstock  Mines,  their  ability  to  form  great  conceptions 
and  execute  them  with  signal  vigor  cannot  be  denied.  It  may  be  true  in 
a  sense  that  they  held  the  lode  in  their  grasp,  but  it  proved  impossible  for 
them  to  prevent  others  from  making  fortunes  in  the  mines,  even  if  this 
was  their  wish.  What  they  did  for  the  Comstock  Lode  is  matter  of  his- 
tory ;  they  lifted  the  Washoe  Mining  District  out  of  a  slough  of  despond ; 
they  pierced  the  belt  of  barren  quartz;  they  raised  new  treasures  to  light, 
and  made  the  tottering  cities  of  Washoe  again  stand  firm.  Others  aided 
them  in  this  work  and  deserve  to  share  the  credit  justly  due;  others 
possibly  might  have  done  what  they  did  if  left  without  help,  but  that  is 
uncertain  and  irrelevant.  It  is  for  achievements  and  not  for  possibilities 
that  this  world  is  in  debt.  The  bones  of  mute  Miltons  and  guiltless 
Cromwells  rot  justly  in  unmarked  heaps.  No  credit  should  be  given, 
moreover,  which  is  not  justly  due.  The  benefit  to  the  people  of  Washoe 
and  to  the  silver  mining  industry  of  the  world  was  inevitable  rather 
than  intentional,  for  those  who  developed  the  lode  did  so  from  motives  of 
self-interest  as  a  profitable  speculation.^  Philanthropic  considerations  did 
not  enter  into  their  plans,  and  they  have  claimed  no  acknowledgment  on 
this  score;  yet  like  most  great  business  enterprises  their  schemes  proved 
of  more  real  service  to  the  working  people  of  the  district  than  a  hundred 
professed  charities.  Capital  was  expended  intelligently,  efiiciently,  and 
lavishly  wherever  needed,  and  was  not  wasted  through  the  lack  of  co- 
operation or  supplied  in  driblets. 

Even  if  the  rate  of  wages  had  been  unchanged,  the  miners  would 
have  profited  largely  by  the  increased  certainty  and  duration  of  their 

'  William  Sharon,  1880. 


26a  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

employment ;  but  these  conditions  made  it  possible  for  the  men  whose 
league  had  been  practically  dissolved  in  the  spring  of  1865  to  unite  again 
with  some  reasonable  hope  of  maintaining  persistently  an  artificial 
standard  of  wages.  They  were  quick  to  perceive  the  opportunity  offered 
in  the  increased  productiveness  of  the  district  during  the  year  1866  and 
the  consequent  encouragement  given  to  investors,  and  the  Virginia  City 
Miners'  Union  was  organized  on  the  4th  of  July,  1867,  only  two  months 
after  the  incorporation  of  its  main  ally  and  support,  the  Union  Milling 
and  Mining  Company.  It  is  certain  that  the  latter  union  was  not  formed 
with  any  view  of  benefiting  the  day  laborers  of  the  Washoe  District,  but 
it  is  equally  certain  that  the  existence  of  the  Miners'  Union  depended 
upon  the  maintenance  of  an  organization  which  assured  a  steadily  pro- 
gressive development  of  the  lode.  If  the  Union  Milling  and  Mining  Com- 
pany and  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company  had  not  been 
formed,  it  is  most  probable  that  the  union  of  miners  would  have  melted 
away  in  1870,  as  the  league,  its  predecessor,  had  dissolved  in  1865,  and 
so,  if  the  miners  had  been  clear-sighted,  they  would  have  welcomed  a 
dreaded  combination,  as  in  truth  a  champion  even  if  malgre  lui.  In  the 
constitution  of  the  union  their  main  end  in  view  is,  perhaps  discreetly, 
veiled  in  vague  phrases:^  "the  object  of  this  union,"  it  is  written,  "shall 
be  the  practice  of  those  virtues  which  elevate  and  adorn  society  and 
remind  man  of  his  duty  to  his  fellow-man ;  the  elevation  of  the  position, 
and  maintenance  of  the  rights  of  the  miner."  Provision  was  made  for 
the  care  of  members  during  temporary  illness  by  an  allowance  which  in 
no  case  could  exceed  |80  annually  to  one  person,^  and  an  appropriation 
of  $80  was  made  to  defray  the  funeral  expenses  of  a  deceased  member.^ 
These  articles  were,  however,  of  insignificant  importance  compared  with 
a  resolution  which  does  not  appear  in  preamble,  constitution,  by-laws,  or 
any  published  manifesto,  but  which  is  the  very  keystone  of  the  union, 
constraining,  as  it  does,  the  mining  companies  of  the  district  to  pay  every 
person  employed  in  underground  labor  of  any  kind  at  the  rate  of  |4  for 
eight  hours'  work,  to  which  a  shift,  so  called,  was  usually  limited. 

'  Constitution  and  By-laws  of  the  Miners'  Union  of  Virginia,  Nevada,  Article  I,  Section  3. 
'  lUd.,  Article  IX,  Section  6  ^Ibid.,  Article  X,  Section  2. 


A  HAZARDOUS  TASK.  267 

The  combination  of  miners  was  so  complete  and  well-timed  that  the 
mine  managers  realized  the  impossibility  of  making  head  against  it,  and 
were  obliged  to  accept  the  terms  which  it  dictated.     One  powerful  com- 
pany alone  held  out  for  a  month,  and  the  means  which  were  adopted  to 
break  down  its  opposition  were  simply  effective.     On  the  night  of  August 
4,  1867,  a  meeting  of  the  union  was  held,  and  the  case  of  the  stubborn 
offender,  the  Savage  Mining  Company,  was  gravely  considered.     Those 
unacquainted  with  union  methods  might  naturally  have  been  surprised 
to  note  that  the  only  resolution  taken  was  one  instructing  the  officers  of 
the  union  to  appoint  a  committee  to  visit  the  mine  and  request  that  all 
underground  laborers  should  be  paid  at  the  rate  of  $4  per  day.^     Their 
surprise  would  have  been  modified  on  the  following  day,  when  it  was 
seen  that  the  "committee"  consisted  of  300  men,  who  quietly  formed  in 
column  and  marched  to  the  Savage  mine  works,^  where  the  foreman, 
after  a  short  parley,  was  persuaded  to  hoist  out  the  working  miners  in 
order  that  it  might  be  ascertained  how  many  were  receiving  less  than  $4 
per  day.     Fourteen  of  the  seventy  miners  thus  brought  to  the  surface 
admitted  that  their  wages  were  less  than  the  union  standard  and  were 
ordered  to  stand  aside  as  black  sheep.     At  this  moment  the  superintend- 
ent, Charles  Bonner,  reached  the  works  and  explained  to  the  committee 
that  he  paid  four  dollars  per  day  to  all  working  at  the  breast,  but  to 
shovelers,  pick-carriers,  and  laborers  of  their  class,  he  considered  that  it 
was  fair  to  pay  less.     He  failed  to  convince  his  hearers,  but  the  most  gifted 
pleader  who  has  ever  lived  would  have  been  equally  unsuccessful.     The 
committee  were  deaf  to  any  remonstrance,  and  when  the  superintendent 
ceased  speaking  all  the  members  of  the  League  cried  out:  "Four  dollars 
per  day  to  all  men  working  underground,  no  matter  what  the  work!"     To 
resist  this  demand  was  impossible.     A  few  of  the  underpaid  men  were 
allowed  to  complete  their  day's  work;  but  when  the  union  met  in  their 
hall,  upon  the  return  of  the  committee,  it  was  finally  resolved  that  the 
rate  of  wages  as  proclaimed  that  day  should  be  enforced  throughout  the 
district.^    The  Savage  Mining  Company  bowed  to  the  decision,  and  thus  the 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  G,  1867.  2  Gold  Hill  News,  August  5,  1867. 

3  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  6,  1867. 


268  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

arbitrary  standard  of  wages  became  again  a  binding  law  on  the  Comstock 
Lode.  By  the  force  of  this  and  supplementary  enactments  the  unions  on 
the  Comstock  Lode  have  controlled  the  wages  fund  with  an  iron  hand  up 
to  the  present  time.  Their  will  has  been  a  recognized  law  which  has  over- 
ridden the  natural  adjustment  of  rates,  and  no  open  revolt  against  their 
despotic  rule  has  ever  taken  place  for  the  sufficient  reason  that  no  mine 
superintendent  has  been  willing  to  risk  his  life  in  asserting  his  independ- 
ence. It  cannot  be  positively  known,  therefore,  to  what  lengths  the 
unions  would  go  in  defense  of  their  position,  but  it  is  certain  that  the 
most  venturesome  mine  manager  has  not  yet  dared  to  test  their  temper. 
The  working  body  of  miners  are  so  quiet  and  orderly  when  their  fancied 
rights  are  not  in  danger  that  it  is  difficult  for  a  casual  observer  to  realize 
how  quickly  their  passions  would  be  fanned  to  flame  by  an  attack  upon  their 
cherished  privileges.  For  fourteen  years  they  have  been  allowed  to  distrib- 
ute the  wages  fund  of  the  mining  companies  with  indiscriminating  hands. 
The  novice  is  paid  as  much  as  the  experienced  miner;  yet,  curiously 
enough,  this  apparent  injustice  is  borne  without  protest,  or  is  suffered  as 
an  inevitable  evil  attaching  to  an  otherwise  desirable  system.  If  the 
existence  of  miners'  unions  is  in  reality  an  injury  to  the  interests  of  the 
skilled  miners  of  the  lode,  it  is  a  self-inflicted  one.  The  combination  of 
employers  rendered  the  combination  of  employes  possible,  but  did  not 
instigate  it,  and  to  hold  the  former  responsible  for  the  acts  of  the  latter 
would  be  as  absurd  as  to  indict  a  cordage  maker  for  selling  a  rope  to  a 
customer  who  converts  it  into  a  noose  with  which  he  hangs  himself.  If 
the  wages  fund  was  misused  by  the  Miners'  Union,  they  were  nevertheless 
indebted  to  the  men  who  placed  it  in  their  hands. 

The  small  capitalists  of  California  and  Nevada  alone  may  have  had 
cause  to  regret  the  combination  which  monopolized  the  lion's  share  of 
the  profits  yielded  by  the  productive  mines.  From  lack  of  organization 
and  money  they  could  not  compete  to  advantage  in  mining  or  milling  with 
their  great  rival.  If  they  were  forced  to  abandon  the  unequal  contest 
they  deserve  no  particular  commiseration,  seeing  that  the  control  of  all 
great  enterprises  has  fallen  into  the  hands  of  the  few  from  time  imme- 
morial.    This  may  not  be  an  ideal  ownership  and  management,  but  it  is 


A  HAZARDOUS  TASK.  269 

clearly  lawful,  and  those  who  object  to  it  must  supplant  it,  if  at  all,  by  a 
broader  and  abler  union. 

When  the  impending  barrenness  of  the  lode,  the  general  depression 
of  business,  and  the  extraordinary  cost  of  labor  under  the  ruling  of  the 
Miners'  Union  are  considered,  it  is  evident  that  the  Bank  of  California 
had  assumed  no  light  responsibility  in  undertaking  to  support  the  mining 
industry  of  the  Washoe  District,  and  the  burden  upon  its  shoulders  was 
made  still  more  heavy  by  a  terrible  calamity  which  crushed  lower  the 
sinking  fortunes  of  the  lode  and  made  many  homes  desolate. 

Underground  fires,  the  occurrence  most  dreaded  by  miners,  had 
broken  out  in  previous  years,  but  had  been  extinguished  without  loss  of 
life.  Thus,  in  March,  1866,  a  fire  kindled  by  some  unknown  chance  in 
the  260-foot  level  of  the  Empire  Mine  (March  10),  had  spread  with  such 
swiftness  that  the  men  at  work  in  this  and  neighboring  mines  were  driven 
to  the  surface  by  outpouring  volumes  of  smoke  and  gas.^  Powerful 
engines  threw  streams  of  water  constantly  down  the  shaft,  but  the  climb- 
ing flames  reached  the  surface,  burning  through  the  planks  and  earth 
with  which  the  shaft-mouth  was  closed.  For  hours  the  shaft  was  a  reek- 
ing pit,  but  the  fire  died  out  finally,  two  days  later,  fof  want  of  fuel  to 
feed  upon,  hemmed  in,  as  it  was,  by  bulkheads  across  all  connecting  gal- 
leries. Seven  months  later  another  fire  was  discovered  in  an  upper  level 
of  the  Ophir  Mine,  alarming  the  miners  by  the  dense  smoke  which  poured 
forth,  but  soon  extinguished  by  their  prompt  action.^  Thus  in  April,  1869, 
when  the  warning  cry  of  fire  was  heard  in  the  Crown  Point  Mine,  the 
horrors  which  might  ensue  from  its  outbreak  were  but  faintly  realized. 
The  fire  originated  in  the  800-foot  level  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine,  about 
135  feet  north  of  its  southern  boundary  line,  on  the  morning  of  the  7th 
of  April.^  How  it  was  kindled  is  unknown,  but  it  is  generally  believed 
that  a  lighted  candle  was  carelessly  left  in  the  drift  so  near  the  timbers 
that  the  dry  wood  caught  fire.  For  some  time  the  flames  crept  along 
the  gallery  unnoticed  until  the  charred  timbers  broke  beneath  the  weight 

•  Gold  Hill  News,  March  12,  1866. 

»  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  24,  1866. 

'San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  13,  1869. 


270  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

of  the  crumbling  roof.  Then  the  unsupported  rock  fell  with  a  crash, 
choking  up  the  gallery  and  expelling  a  blast  of  foul  air  and  smoke 
through  connecting  drifts  into  the  shafts  of  the  Crown  Point  and  Yellow 
Jacket  mines.^  It  was  the  hour  when  the  shifts  were  changing,  so 
that  fewer  men  were  at  work  in  the  mines  than  usual,^  and  this  chance 
saved  many  lives.  John  Murphy,  station -man  at  the  800 -foot  level  of 
the  Yellow  Jacket  shaft,  heard  a  sound  like  a  gust  of  wind  roaring 
through  the  drift,  and  saw  the  fifteen  lights  in  the  station  at  once 
extinguished.  The  foul  blast  stifled  him,  and  he  crouched  on  the  floor, 
wrapping  his  rubber  coat  about  his  face.  In  a  moment  he  lost  conscious- 
ness, but  could  remember  when  rescued  that  he  heard  a  pitiful  cry  come 
up  the  shaft  from  a  lower  level :  "Murphy,  send  nie  a  cage;  I  am  suffo- 
cating to  death!  "^  Two  miners  at  work  in  the  800-foot  level  of  the 
Kentuck  heard  a  like  gale  roaring  through  the  drift  and  were  instantly 
overwhelmed  by  its  fierce  blast  of  smoke  and  gas.  One  struggled  through 
the  stifling  atmosphere  to  the  Crown  Point  shaft  and  was  saved;  the  other 
fell  dying  in  the  drift  beyond  hope  of  rescue.^ 

It  was  in  the  Crown  Point  Mine,  however,  that  this  gust  was  most 
deadly.  Forty-five  men  had  just  been  lowered  into  the  mine,  getting  off 
the  cage  upon  different  levels,  and  the  cage  was  again  descending  with  its 
load  of  men,  when  it  plunged  into  a  rising  current  of  foul  air  at  the  700- 
foot  level;  still  it  went  down  steadily  to  the  800-foot  level,  where  men 
were  found  crying  for  help  in  the  dark,  amid  a  stifling  smoke.  The  terrified 
sufferers  rushed  toward  the  cage  as  a  last  hope,  and  crowded  in  and  upon 
it  till  not  a  bar  was  left  to  cling  to.  All  could  not  be  saved,  and  those  who 
saw  the  cage  rise  toward  the  surface  from  the  station  knew  that  they 
were  left  behind  to  die.®  As  soon  as  the  rescued  miners  could  leave 
the  cage  at  the  surface  it  was  lowered  again  empty  to  the  800-foot  station, 
and  after  a  moment's  pause  the  signal  was  given  to  hoist  and  the  cage 
was  once  more  pulled  up  at  full  speed.     Then  was  seen  a  ghastly  and 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  April  26,  1869. 

^  Ibid.,  Apri]  7,  1869. 

3  Testimony  of  John  Murphy,  before  coroner,  at  inquest ;  Gold  Hill  News,  April  26,  1869. 

'  Testimony  of  B.  F.  Rogers,  at  coroner's  inquest ;  Gold  Hill  News,  April  26,  1869. 

'San  Frimcisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  9,  1869;  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  180. 


A  HAZARDOUS  TASK.  271 

pitiful  sight.  Three  brothers,  from  Yorkshire,  England,  all  strong  young 
men,  were  working  in  the  Crown  Point  Mine.  George  Bickle,  one  of  the 
three,  stood  on  the  cage  insensible,  leaning  over  his  dead  brother,  Rich- 
ard, and  holding  him  with  a  grip  which  could  scarcely  be  loosened. 
Richard  Bickle  had  sunk  down  upon  the  bottom  of  the  cage  as  it  was 
drawn  up,  and  his  head  and  arm  were  torn  almost  completely  from  his 
body  by  the  side  timbers  of  the  shaft.  The  dead  and  dying  brothers 
were  parted  by  kind  hands,  and  George  Bickle  was  laid  tenderly  upon  a 
rude  couch  in  the  hoisting-works  by  the  side  of  other  sufferers,  who,  like 
him,  were  past  all  help  of  medicine.  They  gasped  faintly  for  some  hours 
and  then  their  troubled  breathing  ceased  forever.^  The  cage  was  lowered 
again  to  the  lower  levels  of  the  mine,  but  no  answering  signal  was  given. 

Dense  volumes  of  black  smoke  began  to  rise  up  the  Kentuck,  Crown 
Point,  and  Yellow  Jacket  mine  shafts;  steam-whistles  sounded  an  alarm, 
and  fire-engines  from  Gold  Hill  and  Virginia  City  came  rattling  up  to  the 
burning  mines.  With  the  firemen  came  also  a  great  company  of  men, 
women,  and  children,  who  crowded  about  the  smoky  works,  pressing  in 
at  every  opportunity,  and  trying  to  peer  into  the  blackness  of  the  pits 
where  fathers,  sons,  and  husbands  were  imprisoned.^  Father  Manogue 
and  other  humane  Catholic  priests  moved  about  among  the  people,  con- 
soling them  with  the  hopes  of  a  possible  rescue,  and  bidding  them  trust 
in  God,  the  strongest  shield  and  deliverer.^  There  were  no  wild  cries  or 
despairing  shrieks.*  The  children  could  not  understand  the  peril,  and 
the  hearts  of  brave  women  break  silently.  The  weaker  minds  were 
stunned  by  the  sudden  horror  of  the  scene,  and  many  women  stood  star- 
ing vacantly,  with  clenched  hands  and  swaying  bodies,  while  they  waited 
untiringly  through  the  long  day  for  news  of  their  loved  ones.^ 

Meanwhile,  all  possible  efforts  were  made  by  superintendents  and 
miners  to  rescue  the  doomed  men.  As  soon  as  the  smoke  cleared  away 
somewhat  from  the  Yellow  Jacket  shaft,  owing  to  a  strong  draft  which 
began  to  set  down  that  mine  and  up  the  Crown  Point  shaft,  small  parties 


1  Gold  Hill  News,  April  7,  8, 1869. 

'  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  9,  1869.     Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  8,  1869. 

3  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  178. 

*  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  8,  1869.  ^  Tbe  Big  Bonanza,  p.  178. 


272  HISTOEY  OP  THE  OOMSTOCK  LODE. 

of  miners  and  firemen  went  down  repeatedly  into  the  burning  pit,  but  at 
first  without  success.  At  10  o'clock,  however,  two  dead  bodies  were  taken 
out  of  the  Kentuck  shaft,  from  the  700-foot  station,  and  about  noon  four 
more  were  found  and  brought  to  the  surface  from  the  900-foot  level  of 
the  Yellow  Jacket.  No  one  could  live  for  a  moment  in  the  reeking  chim- 
ney formed  by  the  Grown  Point  shaft,  but  as  the  blower  of  the  mine  was 
kept  constantly  at  work  puffing  fresh  air  into  the  lower  levels,  it  was 
faintly  hoped  that  some  in  the  depths  of  the  mine,  below  the  smoke- 
current,  might  still  be  living.  A  cage  was  accordingly  sent  down  to  the 
1,000-foot  level  about  noon,  with  a  lighted  lantern  upon  it  and  a  sheet  of 
pasteboard,  upon  which  was  written : 

"  We  are  fast  subduing  the  fire.  It  is  death  to  attempt  to  come  up  from  where  you 
are.  We  shall  get  you  out  soon.  The  gas  in  the  shaft  is  terrible  and  produces  sure  and 
speedy  death.  Write  a  word  to  us  and  send  it  up  on  the  cage,  and  let  us  know  where 
you  are." 

When  the  cage  reached  its  destined  station  there  was  a  pause  for  a 
few  moments,  while  all  waited  breathlessly  for  an  answering  signal.  The 
hope  was  vain.  When  the  cage  was  drawn  up  to  the  surface  it  was  seen 
that  the  light  was  extinguished;  but  even  if  the  writing  had  been  illumi- 
nated by  the  beams  of  a  cloudless  sun  instead  of  the  dim  rays  of  a  glim- 
mering lantern  no  eye  within  that  dreadful  tomb  could  have  read  the 
message.  The  roll  of  the  three  mines  was  then  called.  Of  the  men  in  the 
Crown  Point  Mine  23  were  missing,  in  the  Yellow  Jacket  1,  and  in  the 
Kentuck  4.  Six  bodies  had  been  recovered ;  thus  34  miners,  in  all  prob- 
ability, were  dead.^  About  midnight  it  was  decided  to  attempt  to  descend 
through  the  900-foot  level  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  into  the  lower  levels 
of  the  Crown  Point.  The  days  of  chivalry  are  doubtless  past,  yet  to 
penetrate  into  the  depths  of  a  burning  mine  and  brave  the  imminent 
perils  of  suffocation  by  smoke  and  gas,  on  a  forlorn  hope  at  best,  is  a 
deed  which  few  knights  of  old  would  have  sought  to  match.  Three  Gold 
Hill  firemen,  Putnam,  Lee,  and  Mercer,  proved  themselves  worthy  of  the 
names  they  bore  by  facing  the  perils  of  the  venture  first,  in  company 
with  a  Virginia  City  fireman,  Henry  Aine.      They  reached  the  1,000-foot 


1  Gold  Hill  News,  April  7,  1869. 


A  HAZARDOUS  TASK.  273 

level  of  the  Crown  Point  Mine  alive,  groping  their  way  with  dimly-burning 
lanterns  through  the  utter  darkness  and  choking  atmosphere  of  the  drifts. 
Here  the  sights  which  they  saw  were  graven  in  their  memory  forever. 
Dead  men  were  lying  on  the  floor  of  the  level  as  they  fell  in  the  agony 
of  suffocation,  with  their  mouths  glued  to  cracks  in  the  planks  or  raised 
over  winzes,  turning  everywhere  for  one  last  breath  of  fresh  air.  Their 
faces  were  flushed  and  swollen,  but  the  features  of  well-known  friends 
were  not  past  recognition.  Farther  on,  however,  in  the  well  at  the  bottom 
of  the  shaft,  frightfully  mangled  bodies  were  found  of  wretched  men  who 
had  met  an  instant  death  in  their  wild  instinct  to  escape  from  torture. 
One  poor  sufferer  had  climbed  up  the  shaft  to  a  point  between  the  800 
and  900-foot  levels,  where  he  was  found  hanging  to  the  ladder  with  one  leg 
-fast  inside,  and  still  clasping  the  rounds  with  so  firm  a  death-grip  that  he 
could  only  be  plucked  away  by  force.  The  bodies  were  tied  securely  to 
planks  and  hoisted,  one  after  another,  to  the  surface,  where  they  were  taken 
up  in  the  stout  arms  of  miners  and  firemen  and  borne  away.  All  night  long 
the  crowd  of  relatives  and  friends  had  stood  about  the  hoisting-works. 
Ropes  were  stretched  to  prevent  their  flocking  in  and  impeding  the  very 
work  of  rescue  which  they  longed  to  hasten.  As  the  bodies  were  at  last  car- 
ried out  a  pitiful  cry  of  women  was  heard.  "My  God  !  who  is  it  this  time?" 
was  sobbed  out  often.  Some  of  the  bodies  taken  out  last  were  so  man- 
gled or  decomposed  by  the  heat  that  it  was  thought  most  merciful  to  hide 
their  faces  from  their  wives  and  children.  One  poor  woman  begged  hard 
to  see  the  hair  of  her  husband  when  friends  refused  to  show  her  his  face; 
as  she  touched  his  hair  with  a  brief  word  of  farewell  a  little  girl  whom 
she  held  by  the  hand  cried,  appealingly,  "Can't  I  see  my  papa?"  and  the 
mother  fainted.^  But  the  prolonged  agony  of  that  night  is  not  to  be 
described.  The  bodies  of  the  dead  men  were  borne  to  their  graves  by  the 
largest  and  most  solemn  funeral  procession  which  had  ever  been  seen  on 
the  eastern  slope  of  the  Sierra  Nevada.  Guards  from  Virginia  City  and 
Gold  Hill,  with  reversed  arms,  and  bands  playing  requiem  marches,  paid 
the  last  honors  to  the  dead,  and  the  long  line  of  bearers  was  followed  by 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  April  8, 1869 ;  The  Big  Bonanza,  pp.  179-182. 
18  H  c 


274  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  Miners'  Unions  and  the  Canadian  Society,  after  whom  moved  the  sor- 
rowful company  of  relatives  and  friends,^ 

Meanwhile  the  miners  and  firemen  were  battling  valiantly  with  the 
unsubdued  fire  in  the  mines.  As  they  made  their  way  farther  and  farther 
into  the  burning  drifts  the  danger  grew  more  deadly.  As  fast  as  the  flames 
were  extinguished  by  the  firemen  the  miners  cleared  away  the  charred 
wood  and  fallen  rock  and  set  new  timbers  in  place.  Streams  of  water 
were  kept  constantly  playing  on  the  heated  rock  of  the  walls  to  cool  the 
smoky  ovens  which  had  been  mine-galleries.  Hot  water  stood  ankle-deep 
on  the  floor  of  the  levels,  and  its  rising  steam  mingled  with  the  sulphurous 
vapors  of  the  decomposed  ores  and  the  smoke  of  the  burning  wood.  A 
cave  might  occur  at  any  time  which  would  block  the  men  up  in  a  stifling 
prison,  or  expel  a  blast  of  foul  air  which  would  smother  them  in  a 
moment.^  In  placing  hose-pipes  on  the  700  and  800-foot  levels  of  the 
Kentuck  Mine  miners  fell  repeatedly  on  the  floor  of  the  drifts  insensible, 
and  were  carried  fainting  to  the  surface,  where  some  lay  gasping  like  dying 
men  and  others  reeled  and  talked  like  drunkards.  On  regaining  con- 
sciousness they  described  their  first  sensation  upon  breathing  the  gas  as 
"a  pain  near  the  liver; "  next  they  were  conscious  of  an  oppression  in  the 
chest  and  a  gradual  filling  of  the  lungs  with  some  inert  foreign  fluid; 
then  followed  dizziness  and  sudden  insensibility.^  Fresh  air  was  pumped 
into  the  drifts  by  blowers  through  long-jointed  pipes,  but  the  relief  thus 
afforded  was  only  partial  and  might  be  instantly  cut  off.  Then,  too,  when 
air  entered  the  drifts  the  smoldering  wood  was  fanned  to  flame  and  new 
heads  of  the  hydra  fire  appeared  about  the  men  who  had  destroyed 
the  monster,  as  they  thought.  The  glare  of  the  flames,  the  smoking, 
steaming  drift,  the  rushes  of  the  dripping  firemen  and  the  half- naked 
miners,  working  like  Titans,  with  picks,  shovels,  and  axes,  to  hold  the 
ground  when  won,  were  a  sight  to  stir  the  blood  of  any  witness.  In  his 
ears,  too,  were  the  sounds  of  sharply-spoken  orders,  of  brief  words  of 
cheer,  of  crackling  wood,  and  rumbling  ground  overhead.  Surely  a  hand- 
to-hand  fight  with  fire  in  a  mine  is  a  gallant  and  fearful  contest;  yet  it 

■  Gold  Hill  News,  April  8,  1869.  «  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  180. 

=  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  April  13,  1869. 


A  HAZAEDOUS  TASK.  275 

was  a  vain  struggle,  and  was  only  prolonged  because  no  one  would  advo- 
cate the  fatal  measure  of  closing  the  mouths  of  the  shafts  and  filling  the 
mines  with  steam  while  even  the  faintest  hope  remained  of  rescuing  the 
imprisoned  miners.  This  was  done,  however,  at  noon  on  the  9th  of 
April,^  and  for  seventy-two  hours  steam  was  forced  from  the  boilers  of  the 
hoisting-works  into  the  mines.  At  12  m.  on  the  12th  of  April  a  stream 
of  water  was  thrown  down  the  Crown  Point  shaft  in  order  to  purify  the 
air  as  much  as  possible ;  and  after  several  attempts  to  descend  in  the 
cage  small  parties  of  miners  succeeded  in  exploring  several  levels  and  in 
bringing  up  the  bodies  of  three  more  victims;  but  it  was  found  that  the 
smoldering  fire  burst  out  again  when  fresh  air  was  let  into  the  mine,  so 
that  shortly  before  11  o'clock  in  the  evening  of  the  12th  all  the  shafts 
were  again  closed  tightly,  after  a  final  attempt  of  the  Crown  Point  Mine 
superintendent  to  divert  the  steam  current  into  the  700-foot  level.^  The 
pipe-connection  was  made,  and  it  was  only  necessary  to  cut  off  the  passage 
of  the  steam  into  the  lower  levels  by  driving  a  sheet-iron  plate  through 
the  main  conduit-tube.  Mr.  Jones  and  a  young  miner  named  Nagle  worked 
for  fifteen  minutes  to  close  the  conduit  in  an  atmosphere  so  foul  that  a 
bunch  of  nine  lighted  candles  gave  scarcely  the  usual  light  of  one. 
Nagle  was  soon  dazed  and  breathing  painfully,  but  the  superintendent,  a 
man  of  unusual  chest  compass,  suffered  little,  though  he  was  conscious 
of  an  increasing  intoxication.  The  blows  of  his  sledge-hammer  fell  wide 
of  the  mark,  striking  the  plate  unevenly ;  yet  he  was  so  expert  a  miner 
that  he  could  ordinarily  cleave  a  fly  on  the  wall  with  his  pick.  Still  the 
work  was  nearly  completed  when  the  faint  flame  went  out,  leaving  the 
workmen  in  total  darkness.  Nagle,  half  delirious,  jumped  upon  the  cage 
at  the  instant,  and  the  superintendent  had  scarcely  time  to  follow  before 
the  unnerved  miner  jerked  the  bell-rope  violently,  and  the  cage  was 
dragged  up  through  the  warped  timbers  of  the  shaft  at  a  rate  of  speed 
which  terrified  the  men  upon  it,  who  expected  to  hear  the  strained  cable 
snap  momently.  Half  way  up  Nagle  fell  fainting  against  his  companion, 
who   held   him   tightly  until   the  shaft  mouth  was   reached,  when  he 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  April  9,  1869. 
''Ibid.,  April  10,  12,  13, 1869. 


276  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

dropped  the  insensible  body  on  the  floor  and  staggered  out  of  the  cage, 
drunk  as  never  before,  nor  since.^ 

Upon  the  failure  of  this  desperate  attempt  to  extinguish  the  rekin- 
dling flames  steam  was  again  injected  continuously  until  the  afternoon 
of  the  14th  of  April,^  and  three  days  later  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  shaft 
was  reopened  and  efforts  were  made  to  ascertain  and  repair  damages.' 
During  the  days  immediately  following  all  passages  connecting  with  the 
Crown  Point  and  Kentuck  mines  were  carefully  closed  by  bulkheads,  so 
that,  although  the  air  continued  bad  in  several  levels  for  more  than  a 
month,  work  could  be  resumed  with  a  portion  of  the  former  force/  On 
April  28th  ore  was  hoisted  from  the  upper  levels  of  the  Kentuck  Mine, 
after  an  interval  of  three  weeks  ;^  but  on  May  3d  it  was  found  necessary 
to  close  both  the  Kentuck  and  Crown  Point  shafts,  as  the  fire  between  the 
700  and  600-foot  levels  appeared  to  be  gaining.®  For  two  weeks  these 
shafts  were  closed,  and  when  reopened,  May  18,  1869,''  work  could  be 
resumed  by  degrees,  as  the  miners  were  enabled  to  hem  in  the  unextin- 
guished fire  closely  with  bulkheads.*  Even  six  months  later  men  working 
in  the  upper  levels  of  the  mines  would  occasionally  drive  their  picks  into 
a  recess  where  brands  were  still  smoldering;^  and  once  several  miners 
were  asphyxiated  by  a  sudden  influx  of  gas  while  extracting  ore  in  a  stope 
between  the  600  and  700-foot  levels;  but  they  were  taken  out  of  the  mine 
by  fellow-workmen  on  other  levels,  and  all  recovered  in  a  few  hours.^" 

The  stubborn  hold  which  fire  keeps  in  the  exhumed  chambers  of  ore, 
filled  with  masses  of  timber  and  waste  rock,  makes  it  formidable  for 
months  after  it  is  apparently  extinguished,  for  the  unseen  flames  may 
burn  fiercely  at  any  moment;  and  unless  constant  watch  is  kept  the 
miners  are  never  safe  while  at  work  under-ground.  The  damage  caused 
by  the  great  fh-e  was  never  fully  repaired;  some  of  the  closed  galleries 
were  never  reopened,  and  the  bodies  of  these  miners,  if  not  consumed  in 

'  John  P.  Jones,  Superintendent  of  the  Crown  Point  Mining  Company,  1869. 

»  Gold  Hill  News,  April  15,  1869.  =  Gold  ffill  News,  April  19,  1869. 

*lbid.,  April  19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 1869.  ^  Ibid.,  April  29,  1869. 

« 76M.,  May  3,  1869.  '  Ibid.,  May  19,  1869. 

•  Ibid.,  May  20, 21, 22, 24, 26, 1869.  » Ibid.,  November  22,  1869. 

">Ibid.,  December  15,  1869. 


A  HAZAEDOUS  TASK.  277 

the  furnace  which  was  kindled  below  them,  remain  at  this  day  in  the 
crypts  where  the  men  were  entombed  by  the  fallen  roofs  of  the  galleries. 
It  was  clearly  demonstrated  in  this  conflagration  that  steam  is  ineffectual 
to  extinguish  a  mine  fire,  though  of  service  in  purifying  the  atmosphere 
and  temporarily  checking  the  flames  so  that  the  miners  may  erect  sub- 
stantial bulkheads  at  the  desired  points. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

A  FORTUNATE  DELIVERANCE. 

In  view  of  the  failure  of  tlie  known  bonanzas,  the  combination  of  the 
miners  to  maintain  high  rates  of  labor,  the  scarcity  of  water,  and  inci- 
dental discouragements  such  as  the  great  mine  fire  just  described,  the 
venture  of  the  Bank  of  California  must  be  accounted  a  hazardous  one ; 
though  its  hands  were  stayed  in  the  task  of  upholding  the  sinking  inter- 
ests of  the  Comstock  Mines  by  the  two  corporations,  its  children.  To 
advance  money  or  permit  overdrafts  for  the  purpose  of  prospecting  silver 
mines  is  opposed  to  ordinary  notions  of  bank  policy,  unless  the  security 
is  ample.  As  the  Comstock  Mine  owners  were  not  held  personally  liable 
for  the  debts  of  their  respective  companies,  the  only  security  for  loans 
was  mine  or  mill  plant,  if  ore  was  not  discovered,  in  which  event  both 
mine  and  mill  plant  were  practically  worthless.  Large  advances  were 
simply  gambling  ventures,  as  the  bank  directors  well  knew;  so  that  when 
they  suffered  their  bank  to  become  a  mine-supply  company  they  were  more 
liberal  to  the  needs  of  the  Comstock  Lode  than  conservative  of  their  own 
interests  as  bank  stockholders,  for  the  chances  of  loss  thereby  incurred 
were  alarming.  In  the  year  1743  a  proposal  was  made  to  the  royal  and 
supreme  council  of  the  Indies  that  a  mine-supply  company  should  be 
organized,  with  a  capital  of  $2,000,000,  to  aid  in  the  development  of  the 
mines  of  New  Spain.^    The  royal  viceroy,   Count  Fuenclara,  appointed 

'  Gamboa's  Commentaries,  Heathfield'B  Translation,  vol.  1,  pp.  203-209. 

(278) 


A  FORTUNATE  DELIVERANCE.  279 

two  commissioners  of  approved  experience  and  competence,  both  citizens 
of  Mexico,  to  investigate  the  desirability  of  such  an  estabhshment.  In 
1745  these  commissioners  reported  strongly  against  the  scheme  as  imprac- 
ticable on  various  grounds,  but  chiefly  on  account  of  the  hazardous  char- 
acter of  the  investments.  Though  mine  suppliers  themselves,  yet  they 
accepted  less  than  one  out  of  a  hundred  of  the  mines  offered  to  them,  "not 
from  the  want  of  enterprise,"  as  they  said,  "but  from  the  experience  we 
have  so  dearly  purchased  in  this  hazardous  pursuit.  Out  of  100  ships 
the  average  loss,  even  during  time  of  war,  is  but  8;  out  of  100  mines  the 
average  number  of  failures  is  99."  If  this  could  be  said  truthfully  of 
the  rich  mines  of  Mexico  it  could  be  asserted  with  emphasis  of  the  mines 
of  Nevada;  not  one  claim  in  a  hundred  of  those  located  within  the 
limits  of  that  State  has  been  worth  prospecting,  and  not  one  in  twenty  so- 
called  "promising  claims"  has  made  good  its  promise.  In  the  liberal  but 
venturesome  course  followed  by  the  Bank  of  California  there  was,  more- 
over, an  insidious  danger.  When  large  advances  had  been  made  without 
returns,  the  bank  was  obliged  to  face  the  probability  of  losing  all  its 
venture  or  lend  an  additional  sum.  A  bold  speculator  will  choose  the 
latter  alternative  usually,  and  in  this  way  his  fortune  may  be  irretrievably 
involved.  Banks  are  not  always  more  prudent  than  individuals.  Mr. 
Sharon  has  said  that  the  amount  invested  by  the  Bank  of  California  at 
one  time  in  the  mines,  mills,  and  towns  directly  dependent  upon  the  con- 
tinued productiveness  of  the  Comstock  Lode  was  $3,000,000.^  The  whole 
capital  of  the  bank  in  1870  was  |5,000,000,  and,  though  the  great  moneyed 
institution  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  the  loss  of  this  investment,  or  even  a 
popular  dread  of  such  a  calamity,  would  have  endangered  its  very  exist- 
ence, and  certainly  have  crippled  it  for  a  time.  Only  the  few  directly 
acquainted  with  the  condition  of  the  bank  will  ever  realize  the  anxieties 
which  beset  its  management  at  the  close  of  the  year  1870.  A  number  of 
the  mines  on  the  lode  were  indeed  producing  considerable  quantities  of 
low-grade  ore,  but  few  were  paying  dividends.  The  Savage  Mining  Com- 
pany had  paid  its  last  dividend  in  June,  1879,  tha  Kentuck  in  March,  1870, 
and  the  Gould  &  Curry  a  spasmodic  and  speculative  return  of  $48,000  in 

'William  Sharon,  1880.  '- 


280  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOUK  LODE. 

October,  1870,  after  three  years  of  disappointment.  The  approaching 
exhaustion  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  and  the  Yellow  Jacket  ore-bodies  must 
have  been  foreseen,  as  both  companies  ceased  the  payment  of  dividends 
before  the  autumn  of  the  following  year  (in  April,  1871,  and  August, 
1871,  respectively).  The  Chollar-Potosi  alone  had  a  rich  undeveloped 
ore-body  in  sight,  which  yielded  a  profit  of  |1,946,637  in  dividends  to  the 
stockholders  during  the  year  ending  May  31,  1871;  but  later  develop- 
ments were  by  no  means  in  accord  with  the  flattering  prospects  in  the 
spring  of  1871.  No  mines  on  the  lode  except  those  named  had  paid  a 
dividend  since  the  organization  of  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad 
Company  in  the  winter  of  1868.  It  was  a  dismal  outlook,  therefore,  for 
the  bank  stockholders,  when  a  chance  discovery  of  rich  ore  in  an  unprom- 
ising section  of  the  lode  lifted  them  out  of  all  their  difficulties.  The 
Crown  Point  Mining  Company  held  this  section,  540  feet  in  length;  but 
it  had  paid  no  dividends  since  the  outbreak  of  the  fire  in  April,  1869,  and 
the  small  amount  of  ore  (5,680  tons)  discovered  in  its  lowest  productive 
level  had  been  completely  extracted  in  March  of  the  same  year.^  During 
the  fiscal  year  ending  May  1,  1870,  |240,000  were  levied  in  assessments 
from  the  stockholders,^  yet  the  superintendent  was  obliged  to  report,  with 
regret,  that  the  expenditure  was  apparently  fruitless.^  The  quoted  value 
of  the  mine  fell  to  $72,000  during  the  month  of  June,  1870,*  and  its 
stockholders  were  utterly  discouraged. 

The  only  person  interested  who  had  not  lost  heart  completely  was 
the  superintendent,  John  P.  Jones.  His  desperate  venture  at  the  time  of 
the  Yellow  Jacket-Crown  Point  fire  was  characteristic,  and  probably  no 
man  on  the  lode  was  better  fitted  to  lead  a  forlorn  hope.  He  was  born  in 
Herefordshire  County,  England,  near  the  border  line  of  Wales,  in  1829, 
but  is  an  American  by  virtue  of  a  life's  training  and  surroundings.  His 
parents  crossed  the  Atlantic  and  settled  in  the  State  of  Ohio  when  he  was 
only  two  years  old,  and  the  boy  was  educated  and  employed  in  Ohio  until  he 
sailed  from  Cleveland  (through  the  Wetland  Canal)  for  San  Francisco 

'  Annual  Report  Crown  Point  Mining  Company,  1869,  p.  13. 

»7Jirf.,  1870,  p.  13. 

'lUd.,p.9. 

*  Vide  Tables  in  San  Francisco  Stock  Eeport,  December  22,  1879. 


A  POETUNATE  DELIYERANOE.  281 

September  26,  1849.^  In  California  he  had  been  engaged  in  various  min- 
ing enterprises  and  filled  several  public  offices  with  credit  before  his 
nomination  as  Lieutenant  Governor  on  the  Republican  State  ticket  in 
1867.  Although  running  considerably  ahead  of  his  ticket  he  was  defeated 
in  the  election,  and  crossed  the  Sierras  to  Nevada  almost  penniless,  as 
his  limited  means  had  been  exhausted  by  the  necessary  expenses  of 
the  campaign.  Upon  his  arrival  on  the  lode  his  services  were  at  once 
engaged  by  the  Kentuck  Mining  Company,-  and  he  showed  himself  so 
competent  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  that  the  Crown  Point  Mining 
Company,  whose  mine  adjoined  the  Kentuck,  offered  him  the  post  of 
superintendent  in  1868.  Since  his  appointment  he  had  conducted  the 
search  for  ore  with  untiring  zeal,  and  his  ability  was  expressly  recognized 
by  the  directors.^  The  lack  of  success  could  not  be  attributed  justly  to 
any  short-coming  on  his  part,  but  no  display  of  skill  would  compensate 
for  the  absence  of  ore. 

In  June,  1870,  there  was  no  ore  in  the  mine  which  was  worth  extract- 
ing, and  no  indication  of  the  existence  of  any  undeveloped  body.*  Explo- 
rations on  the  1,000  and  1,100-foot  levels  revealed  nothing  but  porphyry 
and  barren  seams  of  quartz,  though  on  the  lowest  level  a  prospecting 
cross-cut  had  been  driven  due  east  from  the  shaft  for  a  distance  of 
800  feet.  Further  search  to  the  eastward  was,  therefore,  abandoned, 
and  a  drift  begun  at  a  point  360  feet  east  of  the  shaft  and  extended 
southward,  without  any  favorable  indication  for  more  than  200  feet,* 
thus  aggravating  the  disheartenment  of  the  stockholders,  if  this  were 
possible. 

In  November,  1870,  shares  were  offered  at  $2,  with  no  buyers.''  The 
entire  mine  property  was  thus  appraised  at  |24,000,  though  the  nominal 
assets  in  mine  and  mill  plant  alone  were  $140,000;'  an  exhibit  which 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  August  29,  1873 ;  Authorized  Biographical  Sketch. 

*  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  1, 1867. 

'Annual  Report  of  the  Crown  Point  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company,  1869,  p. 5. 

*  Ibid.,  1673 ;  Superintendent's  Report,  p.  7. 
^  Ibid., -p.  8. 

*San  Francisco  Stock  Report,  December  22,  1879. 

'Annual  Report  of  the  Crown  Point  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company;  Statement  of  Assets,  p.  17. 


282  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

gives  a  fair  illustration  of  the  market  value  of  a  barren  mine  and  the 
security  offered  for  the  allowance  of  overdrafts.  The  treasury  of  the 
company  was  empty  and  further  assessments  were  impossible. 

At  this  crisis  a  change  of  importance  was  noted  in  the  character  of 
the  lode  rock.  For  years  the  workings  had  been  in  hard,  gray  porphyry, 
but  the  new  drift  began  to  enter  a  different  formation.^  Streaks  of  quartz 
and  clay  appeared,  the  porphyry  became  more  decomposed,  and  friable, 
lighter  in  color,  and  seamed  with  straggling  red  lines  of  iron-rust.  A 
well  defined  clay  seam  was  reached  at  a  point  239  feet  from  the  begin- 
ning of  the  drift,^  and  when  this  was  pierced  a  body  of  soft  whitish  quartz 
was  developed  which  contained  bunches  or  pockets  of  ore.  This  improv- 
ing prospect  so  favorably  impressed  the  superintendent  that  he  determined 
to  go  to  San  Francisco  and  personally  present  his  views  of  the  condition 
of  the  mine  to  its  owners.  His  representations  had  due  weight,  and  a 
number  of  speculators  bought  in  all  the  shares  procurable  at  low  prices. 
But  during  his  stay  in  California  one  of  the  usual  stock  reactions  occurred. 
The  latest  developments  in  the  mine  were  apparently  less  promising,  and 
some  of  the  more  timorous  holders  began  to  lose  confidence.  The  super- 
intendent's faith  did  not  waver,  as  he^ays,  but  he  had  reasons  for  exercis- 
ing more  than  common  prudence,  for  his  daughter  was  dangerously  ill, 
and  he  was  momently  awaiting  a  telegram  which  would  call  him  to  the 
Eastern  States  and  constrain  him  to  be  absent  for  some  weeks  at  least 
from  his  mine.  Several  prominent  operators  were  then  carrying  a  large 
amount  of  stock  on  his  account,  upon  his  agreement  to  bear  all  losses 
in  consideration  for  one-half  of  the  possible  profits.  He  told  these  men 
of  the  illness  of  his  child  and  the  probability  of  his  own  departure,  and 
settled  the  outstanding  account  by  the  disposal  of  the  shares  in  their 
hands.  Though  he  assured  them  of  his  firm  belief  in  the  value  of  the 
mine,  and  he  still  held  a  considerable  number  of  shares,  his  action  belied 
his  words  in  their  minds.  They  regarded  the  story  as  a  lame  pretense  to 
explain  his  stock  sales,  and  could  scarcely  refrain  from  laughiug  in  his 
face.     "Jones'  sick  child"  became  a  by-word  in  a  privileged  circle,  and 

'  John  P.  Jones. 

'  Superintendent's  Report ;  Annual  Report  of  Crown  Point  Mining  Company,  May,  1873,  p.  8. 


A  FORTUNATE  DELIVEKANCB.  283 

when  he  returned  to  Virginia  City  it  was  the  prevalent  impression  that 
the  real  invalid  was  the  Crown  Point  Mine.  The  superintendent  bore 
these  sneers  coolly,  and  when  he  ascertained  by  careful  inspection  that  the 
developments  as  a  whole,  during  his  absence,  were  unmistakably  favor- 
able, he  telegraphed  at  once  to  his  agents  at  San  Francisco  to  buy  largely 
in  addition  to  shares  which  he  still  held.  Meanwhile  his  former  partners 
in  the  speculation  were  selling  short  to  all  buyers,  and  when  the  value  of 
the  mine  became  evident  to  all,  a  few  weeks  later,  their  losses  in  redeem- 
ing outstanding  obligations  were  heavy .^ 

One  leading  stock  operator,  Mr.  Alvinza  Hayward,  had  been  more 
credulous  and  gained  a  fortune  in  consequence.  His  purchases  were 
made  so  rapidly  and  shrewdly  that  he  obtained  5,000  shares,  nearly  half 
the  entire  stock  of  the  company,  at  prices  averaging  less  than  $5  per 
share,  as  is  alleged.*^  Mr.  Charles  B.  Low,  another  prominent  speculator, 
secured  at  the  same  time  1,000  shares  for  |4,300,  including  brokerage 
charges.  As  the  value  of  the  mine  rose,  upon  the  reported  developments 
in  the  spring  of  1871,  Mr.  Low  disposed  of  700  shares  at  from  $90  to  |120 
per  share,  the  greater  portion  of  which  were  bought  in  for  Mr.  Hayward, 
as  was  reported.  A  cross-cut  on  the  1,200-foot  level  entered  the  same  body 
of  ore  found  above  in  May,  1871 ;  the  price  of  shares  bounded  upward  at 
once,  and  Mr.  Low  then  sold  the  shares  remaining  in  his  possession  to 
Mr.  Hayward  at  |180  per  share.  It  was  apparent  that  the  latter  was 
determined  to  obtain  control  of  the  mine.  Only  one  man  had  the 
power  and  the  will  to  oppose  him.  Mr.  Sharon  had  control  of  4,100 
shares,  and  would  not  concede  defeat  without  a  struggle,  for  the 
value  of  the  prize  was  too  well  known,  and  the  independent  action  of  Mr. 
Hayward  was  viewed  as  an  attack  upon  the  combination  of  which  he  was 
a  member.  The  fortified  monopoly  was  seriously  threatened  and  the 
danger  was  realized.  For  a  time  it  seemed  that  a  contest  over  the  election 
of  trustees  was  inevitable,  far  surpassing  in  excitement  any  previous 
rivalry,  but  Mr.  Sharon  coolly  weighed  the  chances  of  success  and  the 
certain  cost  of  the  struggle  and  decided  to  withdraw  from  the  field. 
Accordingly  he   sold  all   his  stock,  4,100  shares,  to  Mr.  Hayward  for 

'  John  P.  Jones.  ^  San  Francisco  Morning  Call,  June  10,  1871. 


284  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

$1,400,000,  on  the  7th  of  June,  1871,  thus  making  the  largest  private 
transfer  of  mining  stock  on  record.'  It  is  prohable,  however,  that  this 
virtual  defeat  rankled  sorely  in  his  mind,  and  that  he  has  never  forgotten 
the  concerted  action  of  Alvinza  Hayward  and  John  P.  Jones  in  wresting 
the  control  of  the  mine  from  his  hands.  To  thus  outwit  the  head  of  the 
combination  either  prior  and  more  accurate  information  must  have  been 
obtained  by  Mr.  Hayward,  or  he  must  have  been  the  more  daring  specu- 
lator of  the  two.  Mr.  Sharon  attributed  his  defeat  to  the  first  cause 
assigned.  It  matters  little  whether  he  was  right  or  wrong  in  his  surmise, 
and  the  public  had  no  reason  to  concern  itself  greatly  about  his  disap- 
pointment. It  was  apparently  a  case  of  diamond  cut  diamond  and  was 
regarded  as  a  personal  matter  strictly.  As  a  stockholder  in  the  Union 
Mill  and  Mining  Company  he  suffered  a  further  loss  in  their  failure  to 
secure  contracts  for  the  reduction  of  ore  from  the  new  bonanza.  Some 
of  this  ore  was  crushed  in  the  mill  of  the  Grown  Point  Company,  but  the 
larger  portion  was  reduced  in  the  mills  of  a  new  corporation,  the  Nevada 
Mill  and  Mining  Company,  which  was  organized  and  controlled  chiefly 
by  Mr.  Hayward  and  Mr.  Jones.  Yet,  though  disappointed  in  his  plans 
for  personal  enrichment,  Mr.  Sharon  had  reason  to  congratulate  himself, 
as  agent  of  the  Bank  of  California,  upon  the  results  of  the  new  dis- 
covery. It  is  a  curious  fact  in  the  history  of  mining  that  the  opening 
up  of  a  bonanza  in  any  part  of  a  district  generally  causes  a  rise  in  the 
market  value  of  all  mines  in  that  district.  If  the  mines  were  on  sec- 
tions of  the  same  vein  this  advance  might  be  less  singular,  but  often 
mines  on  distinct  and  distant  veins  are  likewise  benefited.  In  the  case  of 
a  lode  like  the  Comstock  there  was  no  reason  why  the  development  of  an 
ore-body  in  the  section  owned  by  the  Crown  Point  Company  should  cause 
the  section  of  the  Ophir  Company  to  become  more  valuable,  except  that  the 
bonanza  in  the  Crown  Point  was  a  convincing  proof  of  the  possible 
occurrence  of  rich  ore-bodies  at  a  deep  level,  which  had  been  openly 
doubted.  There  was  no  likelihood  that  the  Crown  Point  ore-body  would 
extend  more  than  a  few  hundred  feet  north  of  the  boundary  line  of  the 
mine,  yet  it  was  such  an  encouraging  indication  of  the  probable  richness 


William  Sharon. 


A  FOETUNATB  DELIVEEANCE. 


285 


of  the  unexplored  fissure  that  the  quoted  value  of  nearly  all  the  mines  on 
the  lode  bounded  upward  as  soon  as  the  importance  of  the  new  develop- 
ment was  generally  realized.^ 

This  extraordinary  increase  in  the  market  value  of  the  mines  was  a 
certain  though  indirect  benefit  to  the  Bank  of  California,  for  stockholders 
responded  willingly  to  the  call  for  contributions  to  continue  the  work  of 
prospecting.  The  depleted  treasuries  of  the  mining  companies  were  refilled, 
outstanding  liabilities  were  paid  promptly,  and  the  Bank  of  California,  the 
principal  creditor,  received  back  its  advances  with  interest.  Moreover, 
the  whole  district  was  benefited  by  the  improved  condition  of  the  stock 
market.  Mill  property  advanced  at  once  in  value,  the  price  of  improved 
real  estate  rose  sharply,  and  all  branches  of  business  felt  the  quickening 
stimulus  of  the  influx  of  capital  and  the  increase  of  confidence.  Thus 
any  mortgages  held  by  the  bank  as  security  for  advances  were  made 
negotiable,  while  before  the  discovery  they  would  not  have  realized  at  a 
forced  sale  one-third  of  their  face  value.  The  bank  was  therefore  lifted 
above  the  fear  of  loss,  the  towns  on  the  lode  were  made  prosperous,  and 
a  few  stockholders  greatly  enriched  by  the  new  development. 

The  only  men  who. did  not  join  in  the  general  exultation  were  those 
stockholders  who  had  sold  their  shares  in  the  Crown  Point  Mine  before 
the  rise.  If  they  were  not  fully  apprised  of  the  extent  and  richness  of 
the  bonanza  as  rapidly  as  the  developments  were  made  they  had  cause 
for  grave  complaint;  if  they  knew  the  condition  of  the  mine  as  thor- 
oughly as  the  principal  stockholders  and  trustees,  but  were  not  equally 
daring  gamblers,  they  had  only  themselves  to  blame  for  their  mistake. 


'  San  Francisco  Stock  Eeport,  December  22,  1879. 


NOTEMBEB,  1870,  HlQHEBT 

Sellino  Pbice. 

June,  1871,  Hiohest 
Sellino  Pbioi. 

rmwn  Point 

Belcher 

$7  00 
3  00 
37  00 
40  00 
118  00 
94  00 
400 

$340  00 
245  00 
77  00 
60  60 
72  00» 
178  00 
10  75 

Yellow  Jacket 

Sarage 

Gould  4  Curry  . 

Ophir 

•The  exceptional  decline  in  the  Hale  &  NorcroBs  mine  sbaree  was  dne  to  the  discontinuance  of  the  monthly  diridendfl  In  May, 
1871,  thongh  the  quoted  value  of  the  stock  was  blown  up  in  July,  1871,  to  $145  per  share,  thus  coafirming  the  general  statement  made. 


286  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

It  is  certain  that  the  stockholders  of  hmited  means  were  not  as  venture- 
some as  Mr.  Hay  ward,  nor  as  able  to  purchase;  but  it  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  their  knowledge  of  the  true  condition  of  the  mine  was  less 
complete  and  accurate.  It  had  not  been  the  custom  to  furnish  full  and 
prompt  bulletins  of  progress  for  the  use  of  stockholders,  and  the  directors 
of  the  Crown  Point  Mine  had  no  apparent  wish  to  figure  as  reformers.  A 
stockholder  who  relied  simply  on  the  meagre  official  publications  for 
information  would  have  leaned  upon  a  broken  reed.  If  the  majority  of 
stockholders  had  held  their  shares  as  an  investment  strictly  there  would 
often  have  been  a  passion  stirred  among  them  which  would  have  swept  away 
unfaithful  boards  of  directors  and  compelled  halting  superintendents  to 
do  their  duty;  but  it  was  notorious  that  shares  were  held  for  speculative 
purposes  usually,  and  that  a  well-managed  stock  "deal"  was  as  accepta- 
able  to  most  holders  as  an  actual  development  of  ore.  Stock  deals  were 
naturally  easier  to  produce  than  ore-bodies,  so  that  the  gambling  public 
was  commonly  given  chaff  instead  of  wheat.  If  buyers  and  sellers  were 
willing  to  deal  in  counterfeit  coin  they  had  only  themselves  to  blame 
when  their  riches  turned  to  ashes  in  their  hands,  as  in  the  well-known 
fable.  Inefficient  complaints  were  heard  occasionally  from  one  quarter 
or  another,  but  protests  against  stock  deals  were  never  loud  and  emphatic. 
Now,  the  very  essence  or  possibility  of  a  stock  deal  lies  in  the  ignorance 
of  the  great  body  of  buyers  and  sellers  of  the  true  value  of  their  stock, 
or  in  their  belief  that  only  a  few  leading  manipulators  know  its  true 
value.  If  the  public  at  large  were  permitted  to  know  the  actual  condition 
of  a  mine  stock  deals  would  become  impossible.  Stock-gambling  might 
indeed  continue,  based  on  various  estimates  as  to  the  extent  of  the  ore- 
body;  but  an  empty  stock-bubble  would  be  a  thing  of  the  past.  To  insist, 
therefore,  on  the  faithful  performance  of  duty  by  mine  trustees  and 
superintendents  would  be  the  death-knell  to  stock  deals,  and  it  is  fair  to 
assume  that  the  majority  of  shareholders  in  the  Comstock  mines  did  not 
wish  this  conclusion.  If  they  did  wish  it  why  was  their  demand  not 
made  effectual  ?  The  responsibility  for  their  inaction  cannot  be  thrown 
justly  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  few  leading  speculators.  Excuses  can 
always  be  found  for  stupidity  and  avarice.  If  the  public  was  tempted  and 
deceived  at  first  by  a  dazzling  bait,  artfully  displayed  by  a  few  designing 


A  FOETUNATE  DELIVEEASTOE.  287 

men,  years  of  experience  should  have  opened  its  eyes.  All  feasible  tricks 
and  devices  were  stale  in  1870.  If  the  plea  of  powerlessness  is  urged  it  falls 
to  the  ground.  Union  and  cooperation  of  honest  investors  gives  power, 
and  this  course  was  always  feasible;  for  when  a  mine  could  not  be  pur- 
chased and  controlled  by  such  an  organization  why  should  a  scrupulous 
investor  hold  a  share  of  its  stock?  Honest  men  might  incur  losses  occa- 
sionally, it  is  true,  from  the  unworthiness  of  trusted  agents;  but  if  agents 
were  sharply  supervised  such  losses  would  be  rare  and  inconsiderable. 
If  a  man  has  neither  time  nor  inclination  to  watch  his  own  interests  or 
investments,  he  should  rarely  buy  shares  in  a  mine.  His  carelessness, 
of  course,  does  not  palliate  the  crimes  or  faults  of  his  agents,  though  it 
places  temptation  in  their  way;  and  such  easy-natured  indifference  as 
this  has  proved  most  harmful  in  its  effects.  The  officers  of  any  mining 
company  who  failed  to  report  to  its  stockholders  the  true  condition  and 
prospects  of  their  mine,  to  the  best  of  their  knowledge  and  belief,  when- 
ever such  information  was  due,  were  clearly  derelict.  To  enforce  this 
requisition  in  all  companies  holding  mines  on  the  Comstock  Lode  might 
have  been  a  Utopian  plan,  for  the  justice  of  a  measure  has  not  always 
made  it  practicable;  yet  such  cooperation  of  honest  investors  as  has  been 
outlined  was  clearly  possible  and  the  control  of  any  mine  secured  at 
will.  If  this  course  was  not  followed,  it  is  apparent  that  there  was  no 
general  or  effective  desire  for  reform;  and  if  stock  purchasers  were  con- 
tent with  their  acquisitions  why  should  uninterested  spectators  complain? 
It  is  true  that  a  committee  was  appointed  by  the  San  Francisco  Board 
of  Brokers  in  January,  1870,  to  devise  a  method,  as  the  Territorial  Enter- 
prise pithily  stated,  "  of  dissipating  the  fog  which  hung  over  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Comstock  Mines."  Majority  and  minority  reports  were 
accordingly  submitted,  the  latter  "by  a  gentleman  who  is  evidently  willing 
to  be  befogged;"^  the  former  recommending  action  to  procure  the  passage 
of  a  law  compelling  the  trustees,  superintendent,  and  secretary  of  every 
incorporated  mining  company  to  file  in  the  offices  of  designated  county 
clerks  sworn  statements  quarterly,  showing  amount  of  work  done,  money 
received  and  expended,  by  itemized  accounts,  and  condition  of  the  mine 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  5, 1870. 


288  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

as  clearly  as  possible.  It  was  further  recommended  that  such  companies 
should  be  required  by  law  to  award  contracts  for  crushing  their  ore  to 
the  lowest  responsible  bidder  when  mills  were  not  owned  by  the  corpora- 
tions, and  to  limit  all  contracts  so  awarded  to  a  period  not  exceeding  three 
months.  Meetings  of  the  stockholders  were  to  be  called  by  the  trustees 
whenever  demanded  by  persons  unitedly  representing  one-quarter  of  the 
capital  stock  of  any  company,  under  penalty  of  fines  upon  conviction  for 
non-compliance.  These  provisions  were  apparently  just  in  the  main  and 
practicable.  They  were  not  sufficient,  and  might  be  evaded,  but  were 
commendable  as  the  first  step  toward  reform.  Yet  the  report  died  still- 
born, for  the  board  took  no  earnest  action  to  present  the  subject  to  the 
attention  of  the  legislature,  and  neglected  even  to  take  the  simply  effective 
measure  of  refusing  to  buy  or  sell  the  shares  of  any  mine  whose  officers 
refused  to  comply  with  reasonable  regulations  guaranteeing  protection  to 
stockholders.  The  brokers  would  not  act,  and  it  is  certain  that  stock- 
holders generally  accepted  the  existing  condition  of  mine  management 
without  strong  protest.  If  they  hoped  for  reform  without  exertion  on 
their  own  part  they  were  assuredly  optimistic;  if  they  wished  for  no 
change  they  merited  no  sympathy  when  their  speculations  were  disastrous. 
Hence  it  was  that  the  stockholders  of  the  Crown  Point  Mine,  who  had  sold 
their  shares  at  low  prices  to  Mr.  Hayward  and  others,  did  not  grumble 
loudly  when  the  bonanza  was  fully  made  known,  for  they  had,  in  a  meas- 
ure, forfeited  their  right  to  complain  when  they  allowed  the  Grown  Point 
Mine  to  be  managed  like  most  of  the  other  mines  on  the  lode.  Under 
existing  customs  in  the  district  the  neglect  to  furnish  clear  and  full  bulle- 
tins was  not  so  directly  contemptuous  of  the  rights  of  stockholders  as 
another  practice,  which  endured  for  a  long  time  unchecked. 

When  miners  were  beginning  to  explore  a  new  level  in  the  lode  by 
cutting  a  gallery  from  the  shaft  toward  the  ledge,  and  were  on  the  point 
of  piercing  the  east  or  hanging  wall,  the  custom  grew  up  of  confining  the 
men  at  work  for  days  below  the  surface.  The  object  of  this  confinement 
was  evident.  It  was  believed  that  ore-bodies  existed  most  commonly 
close  to  the  east  or  boundary  wall,  and  the  directors  of  mine  companies 
desired  to  hold  any  information  gained  by  piercing  the  ledge  for  their 


A  FOETUNATE  DELIVERANCE,  289 

exclusive  use.  To  imprison  the  miners  was  the  best  guarantee  that  they 
would  not  make  premature  disclosures;  so  the  trustees  became  jailors  for 
the  time  being.  The  miners  so  held  did  not  usually  grumble,  as  they 
were  fed  and  cared  for  with  particular  attention,  and  their  wages  were 
often  temporarily  increased.  If  all  stockholders  in  a  mine  had  been 
apprised  daily  of  the  developments  thus  made  the  practice  might  not 
have  been  objectionable,  but  as  a  matter  of  fact  many  were  kept  ignorant 
of  the  progress  made  and  the  results  of  the  exploration  by  the  wilful 
neglect  or  refusal  of  the  trustees  to  accord  the  information  desired. 

The  credit  of  this  invention  probably  belongs  to  the  controllers  of 
the  Gould  &  Curry  Mine  in  1863.*  Five  years  later  it  was  termed  a  com- 
mon practice,^  and  few  objected  loudly  when,  in  January,  1868,  the  super- 
intendent of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine  confined  twenty-five  miners  within 
the  hoisting- works  of  his  mine  for  three  days  while  piercing  the  partition 
selvage  of  clay  on  the  930-foot  level.  The  men  were  paid  |12  per  day 
and  were  willing  prisoners.  On  their  release,  January  10,  1868,  it  was 
reported  that  some  rich  ore  had  been  found.'  The  stock  of  the  mine, 
which  was  quoted  at  $1,300  per  foot  on  January  8th,  rose  to  $2,200  per 
foot  January  11th,  and  a  contest  for  the  control  of  the  mine  at  once  ensued 
which  raised  the  price  of  shares  far  above  their  true  value.  In  this 
instance  it  was  possible  that  the  report  was  well  founded,  though  the 
product  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine  during  the  year  and  the  suspension 
of  dividends  did  not  strongly  confirm  it,  but  the  advantage  of  ascertaining 
the  facts  of  the  case,  as  a  guide  in  the  purchase  or  sale  of  stock,  was 
evident.  A  reported  strike  might  be  nearly  as  profitable  as  a  genuine 
discovery.  ^  Unfortunately  for  these  speculators,  confidence  in  all  reports 
was  so  greatly  shaken  before  the  close  of  1868  that  when  the  same  plan 
was  tried  by  the  superintendent  of  the  Imperial  Empire  Mine  in  February, 
1869,*  while  cutting  through  the  east  clay  wall  on  two  levels,  the  stock 
of  the  mine  began  to  fall  in  value  at  once.  The  eighteen  miners  at  work 
on  these  levels  were  confined  in  the  mine  for  seven  days  (February  12th  to 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  19,  1871.  =  Gold  Hill  News,  February  15,  1869. 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  January  11,  1868;  Territorial  Enterprise,  January  11, 1863. 
*  Gold  Hill  News,  February  15, 1869. 
19   H  c 


290  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

19th,)  during  which  time  the  quoted  value  of  the  mine  decreased  nearly 
one-third — a  result  not  anticipated  by  their  jailors.^  The  Gold  Hill  News, 
in  commenting  on  the  absurd  failure  of  the  plan,  hoped  "  that  this  old 
dodge  had  been  played  for  the  last  time,"^  but  the  hope  was  not  realized; 
for  it  was  not  until  Februarys,  1872,  that  the  scheme  was  effectually 
exploded. 

The  Savage  Mining  Company  had  resorted  to  this  device  with  suc- 
cess in  the  first  week  of  February,  1872,  cutting  into  a  small  body  of  rich 
ore,  and  thereby  raising  the  quoted  value  of  their  mine  fourfold.^  So  the 
Ophir  Mining  Company,  in  opening  up  the  1,100-foot  level  of  their  mine, 
confined  four  miners,  without  anticipating  the  spirited  protest  which 
ensued.*  For  some  reason  a  rumor  arose  that  the  imprisoned  men  were 
held  b^force  within  the  mine,  and  this  report  was  widely  circulated  by 
discontented  stockholders."'  The  miners  on  the  lode  have  always  been  jeal- 
ous of  encroachments  which  threatened  their  personal  independence  and 
privileges,  and  in  this  case  their  disgust  at  the  action  of  the  Ophir  man- 
agers was  heightened  by  sympathy  for  their  friends.  Notice  was  publicly 
given  that  writs  of  habeas  corpus  would  be  served  on  the  superintendent 
of  the  Ophir  Mine,  and  that  suits  for  damages  on  the  score  of  illegal 
detention  would  be  instituted  on  the  release  of  the  four  prisoners.  Min- 
ing stocks  have  always  been  peculiarly  sensitive  to  depressing  rumors, 
groundless  or  well  founded,  resembling  flimsy  towers  reared  high  in  air, 
whose  walls  will  crumble  in  ruin  should  a  slight  earthquake  displace  one 
stone  of  the  edifice.  So  the  threat  made  by  the  friends  of  the  prisoners 
awakened  a  slumbering  disgust  at  the  "shutting-down  process,"  as  the 
plan  was  termed,  which  completely  foiled  the  plans  of  the  mine  managers. 
Disgust  produced  distrust,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Imperial  Mine  stock  sale 
three  years  before.  Shares  of  the  Ophir  Mining  Company  were  thrown  on 
the  market  at  any  sacrifice,"  and  the  stock  which  was  quoted  at  |105  per 
share  on  February  23d  fell  to  $40  on  February  28th.  The  Ophir  Mine 
managers  did  all  in  their  power  to  check  this  fall,  but  their  efforts  were 
fruitless.     A  card  was  published  in  the  Territorial  Enterprise,  February 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  February  18,  1869.  ^  Gold  Hill  News,  February  19,  1869. 

^Ibid.,  February  6,  8,  1872.  *Ibid.,  February  27,  1872. 

6  I6id.,  February  28,  1872.  ejiirf.,  February  28,29, 1872. 


A  FORTUNATE  DELIVERANCE.  291 

29,  1872,  signed  by  the  four  imprisoned  miners,  certifying  that  they 
remained  under  ground  by  their  own  consent;  but  this  prop  was  inserted 
too  late.  The  shock  to  the  reputed  value  of  the  mine  was  so  great  that 
its  effects  were  lasting,  and  the  lesson  was  a  serviceable  one ;  forComstock 
Mine  controllers  then  realized  that  the  shutting-down  process  was  a 
dangerous  experiment;  and  that  to  be  hoisted  in  their  own  petard  was 
unpleasant.     So  far  as  is  known  the  device  was  not  again  used. 

Besides  the  immediate   ill  effects  occasioned  by  such  short-sighted 
management  a  most  serious  and  lasting  injury  to  the  general  welfare  of 
the  district  was  wrought  in  the  prevailing  distrust  which  acts  like  these 
excited.     How  deep-seated  and  far-reaching  was  this  distrust  appeared 
unmistakably  in  May,  1872,  when  a  scandalous  accusation,  which  otherwise 
would  not  have  gained  credence  for  a  moment,  was  potent  to  horrify  the 
public,  reduce  the  market  value  of  a  mine  one-half,  and  precipitate  a  general 
fall  in  mining  stocks.     The  cause  of  the  terrible  mine  fire  in  1869  had 
never  been  absolutely  determined.     The  careless  placing  of  a  lighted 
candle  near  the  dry  timbers  of  a  drift  was  the  probable  explanation,  but 
in  the  unreasoning  excitement  of  the  scene  which  followed,  a  rumor  was 
muttered  about  that  the  fire  was  purposely  kindled  as  a  device  to  bear 
the  market  in  San  Francisco  and  enable  certain  speculators  to  buy  in  the 
stock  at  a  low  valuation.     It  was  said  that  the  originators  of  this  plot 
intended  to  extinguish  the  fire  in  a  few  hours,  as  soon  as  the  telegraphic 
report  of  its  outbreak  should  have  depressed  the  value  of  the  mine  suffi- 
ciently for  their  purpose,  but  that  in  the  execution  of  their  design  some 
one  had  fatally  blundered.     The  grave  absurdity  of  this  charge  was  man- 
ifest.    The  perils  of  fire  in  mines  were  clearly  known,  and  stocks  could 
be  depressed  at  the  will  of  mine  managers  by  methods  far  less  bungling 
and  dangerous;  but  granting,  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  that  scoun- 
drels who  would  form  such  a  plot  lived  in  the  district,  it  was  morally  cer- 
tain that  they  would  have  shown  some  trifling  foresight  and  care,  at  least, 
in  its  conduct.     It  was  clearly  kindled  at  an  unsuitable  hour,  for  if  the 
fire  was  intended  merely  as  a  scare  it  could  have  been  controlled  or  extin- 
guished before  the  opening  of  the  stock-boards  in  San  Francisco,  and  an 
unchecked   conflagration  would  injure  the  mine  too  seriously  for  any 


292  HISTORY  OP  THE  GOMSTOCK  LODE. 

speculative  purposes.  No  stock  speculator  would  have  allowed  a  fire  which 
he  had  been  instrumental  in  kindling  to  burn  so  long  unwatched  and 
unchecked  before  the  alarm  was  given,  and  even  the  vilest  gambler  would 
have  contrived  to  save  the  lives  of  the  innocent  men  who  died  beyond 
the  reach  of  help.  These  facts  are  so  patent  that  to  attribute  this  fire  to 
the  hand  of  a  trained  miner  appears  preposterous,  and  it  was  so  regarded 
on  the  Comstock  Lode  when  the  maddening  excitement  of  the  first  days 
of  the  fire  subsided.  The  wretched  rumor  was  apparently  forgotten,  when 
it  was  revived  three  years  later  in  the  form  of  a  published  denunciation 
of  George  F.  Kellogg,  foreman  of  the  Crown  Point  Mine  in  1869,  as  the 
incendiary,  and  the  insinuation  that  the  superintendent  of  this  mine  was 
privy  to  the  design.^  The  principal  accuser  was  Isaac  S.  Hubbell,  under- 
ground foreman  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  at  the  time  of  the  fire,  but 
serving  as  a  guard  at  the  Nevada  State  Prison  in  1872.  His  evidence, 
when  carefully  sifted  by  a  grand  jury  a  few  months  later,  at  the  request 
of  those  directly  and  indirectly  accused,  was  found  to  be  worthless;  for, 
after  examining  Hubbell  and  others  closely  in  regard  to  the  breaking  out 
of  the  fire,  the  jury  reported  unanimously  thatHubbell's  statements  were 
"without  foundation  and  seemingly  the  result  of  personal  malice."  *  As 
this  jury  was  composed  of  citizens  of  high  character  their  report  must  be 
accepted  as  conclusive,  in  default  of  any  evidence  to  the  contrary;  yet 
the  unsupported  declaration  of  Hubbell  produced  a  panic  among  the  stock- 
holders of  the  Crown  Point  Mine  which  reduced  the  market  price  of  their 
shares  to  one-eighteenth  of  their  former  value  and  hurried  on  a  general 
fall  in  mining  stocks.' 

A  depression  so  extraordmary  was  not,  of  course,  due  to  this  rumor 
alone.  A  development  in  the  Savage  Mine,  which  at  the  time  was  thought 
most  promising,  proved  to  be  of  small  importance  when  the  extent  of 
the  ore-body  was  more  fully  determined,  and  the  inflated  stock  began  at 
once  to  sink  in  spite  of  the  frantic  efforts  of  the  bulls  in  the  San  Francisco 

'  San  Francisco  Daily  Chronicle,  May  8,  1872;  Statements  of  James  O'Oonnell  and  Isaao  S.  Hubbell. 
«  Eeport  of  Grand  Jury,  August  8,  1872 ;  Gold  Hill  News,  August  10, 1872. 
*  San  Francisco  Stock  Eeport  Tables,  December  22,  1879 : 

CROWN  POINT  MINE    SHARES. 
Highest  price,  May,  1872,  §1,825. 
Lowest  price,  May,  1872,        100. 


A  FORTUNATE  DELIVERANCE.  293 

Exchange  to  stay  the  tide.    Mr.  Hayward  and  Mr.  Jones  were  known 
to  have  control  of  a  majority  of  the  stock  ^  and  to  have  been  most  san- 
guine as  to  its  ultimate  value,  but  when  the  truth  in  regard  to  the  ore- 
deposit  was  learned,  they  could  no  longer  venture  to  maintain  the  price 
of  tlie  stock  or  prevent  its  swift  decline.     In  April,  1872,  the  stock  had 
sold  at  1725  per  share,  or  |12,600,000  for  the  entire  mine,^  more  than 
the  Crown  Point  was  worth,  the  most  productive  on  the  lode.    Such  pre- 
posterous inflation  proved  disastrous  to  many  speculators,  for  when  the 
bubble  was  pricked  the  stock  dropped  to  |175  per  share,  and,  as  usual, 
dragged  down  the  whole  market  in  its  fall.     Mr.  Sharon  and  other  large 
operators  did  not  see  fit  to  bolster  up  the  sinking  stocks,  and  it  was  cur- 
rently reported  that  heavy  sales  were  made  on  their  account.'    Whether 
this  is  true  or  not,  it  is  certain  that  no  custom  of  the  Stock  Exchange  or 
precedent  among  speculators  prevents  any  one  from  disposing  of  his 
stock  or  purchasing  whenever  he  finds  it  profitable  to  do  so.     It  is  absurd 
to  suppose  that  men  who  gamble  in  stocks  will  consult  the  interests  of 
others  before  their  own,  though  they  may  be  foolishly  berated  for  not 
doing  so.    The  financial  editor  of  the  San  Francisco  Alta,  a  shrewd  and 
careful  observer,  wrote.  May  19,  1872,  that  the  decline  was  occasioned 
mainly  "by  sales 'for  account'  and  sales  of  brokers  where  the  call  for 
margins  was  not  responded  to.    These  were  on  country  accounts  to  a 
considerable  extent.     A  large  amount  of  the  shrinkage  has  not  been 
actual  loss,  but  its  nominal  gains."     This  last  statement  was  undoubtedly 
true,  though  it  did  not  console  the  stockholders  who  had  failed  to  sell  out 
before  the  fall.    These  unlucky  speculators  realized  two  things  keenly, 
that  the  decline  was  the  most  rapid  and  great  which  the  San  Francisco 
stock-market  had  ever  known,"  and  that  their  paper  fortunes  had  melted 

into  thin  air. 

Still,  though  the  effects  of  this  panic  were  deeply  felt  by  unsuccessful 
stock  gamblers,  the  general  confidence  in  the  probable  existence  of  ore- 
bodies  below  the  working  levels  was  unimpaired.     The  discovery  of  the 

'  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  May  19,  1872 ;  Editorial. 

^  San  Francisco  Stock  Report,  December  22,  1879.  »  San  Francisco  Call,  May  16,  1872. 

*  "Minin-  stocks  have  declined  over  $50,000,000  in  value  within  a  fortnight,  the  decline  in  a  dozen  lead- 
ing stocks  alone^being  nearly  half  that  amount  in  the  last  week ;"  San  Francisco  Evening  BulIeUn,  May  17,  1872. 


294  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Crown  Point  ore-body  was  made  known  to  capitalists  in  this  country  and 
abroad,  and  a  stimulus  to  investment  was  thereby  given  which  probably 
secured  the  prosecution  of  the  great  mining  enterprise  of  Adolf  Sutro. 
Some  of  the  mining  companies  who  had  expected  to  find  the  lode  nearly 
dry  at  the  depth  of  1,000  feet  began  to  realize  how  far  water  could  perco- 
late through  the  seamy  and  decomposed  rocks  of  the  basin  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Davidson,  and  how  extensive  was  the  area  of  drainage.  Still,  in 
spite  of  the  existence  of  large  pockets  of  water,  so-called,  in  all  parts  of 
the  lode,  and  the  continuous  fight  carried  on  by  a  few  mining  companies 
against  its  inroads,  the  total  amount  encountered  annually  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  lode  was  much  less  than  in  1866.  The  evidence 
attesting  the  diminution  of  the  water-plague  is  conclusive  to  an  unpreju- 
diced observer.  The  affirmations  of  the  superintendents,  the  testimony 
of  working  miners,  and  the  expense  accounts  of  the  mines  are  incontro- 
vertible witnesses  to  this  fact  when  united,  as  they  are,  in  its  confirma- 
tion. It  is  equally  idle  to  allege  that  no  mining  companies  on  the  lode 
were  seriously  inconvenienced  by  the  presence  of  water,  as  was  affirmed 
in  the  heat  of  the  opposition  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel  project. 

In  some  mines  the  fight  went  on  year  after  year  against  an  enemy 
which  seemed  to  lie  in  wait  for  their  advances  and  dispute  the  ground  with 
them  inch  by  inch.  Foiled  at  one  point,  it  would  apparently  withdraw  to 
break  in  upon  them  again  when  they  were  off  their  guard  and  working  in 
fancied  security ;  and  when  its  hydra  heads  were  lopped  off  at  one  place 
new  ones  would  spring  up  elsewhere  with  inextinguishable  vigor.  To 
chronicle  such  a  contest  is  to  write  down  an  unvaried  record  of  flooded 
shafts  and  levels,  of  temporary  drainage,  and  of  new  inbursts  of  water; 
or,  more  discouraging  still,  of  broken  pumps  and  of  delusive  gains,  when 
the  battle  was  really  a  drawn  one  and  the  pumps  could  only  hold  the  rising 
water  in  check.  So  in  April,  1868,  an  observer  noted  regretfully  that  the 
new  shaft  of  the  Imperial  Empire  would  not  be  so  readily  drained  as  was 
hoped, ^  and  at  the  end  of  the  following  month  the  inflowing  water  was 
still  the  great  drawback  to  any  knowledge  of  the  ledge.^  In  June  an  injury 
to  the  guides  in  the  shaft  put  a  stop  to  bailing  with  the  hoisting-tanks  for 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  30,  1868.  ^Ibid.,  May  23,  1868. 


A  FOETUNATE  DELIVEEANOE.  295 

several  hours,  during  which  time  the  water  rose  four  feet  above  the  floor 
of  the  lower  level.^  The  fight  was  soon  renewed,  but  the  water  was 
indomitable,  and  when  the  tank-cable  broke  under  the  ceaseless  strain,  in 
March,  1869,  the  rising  flood  filled  the  shaft  to  the  depth  of  100  feet  before 
a  new  cable  could  be  procured  and  adjusted.^ 

In  the  Gould  &  Curry  Mine  work  in  the  lower  levels  had  been  sus- 
pended in  1866  owing  to  the  water  encountered,^  and  during  1867  the 
new  pumping-engine  was  at  work  continuously  in  order  to  keep  the  water 
in  check.  Even  in  the  spring  of  1868  the  influx  was  still  so  great  that  it 
was  necessary  to  put  in  additional  pumps,  and  when  four  pumps  began  to 
drain  the  mine  in  April  the  water  had  risen  in  the  shaft  to  the  depth  of 
nearly  500  feet.*  In  June  of  the  same  year,  when  the  shaft  had  reached 
the  depth  of  964  feet,  it  was  reported  that  the  pumps  were  still  in  con- 
stant operation,®  and  they  so  continued  until  a  breakage  occurred  in 
March,  1869,  when  the  water  rose  to  the  height  of  320  feet  in  the  shaft 
while  the  pumps  were  undergoing  repair.^  Foot  by  foot,  however,  the 
water  was  driven  back,'  though  every  inch  was  won  and  held  by  a  never- 
ceasing  contest,  so  that  even  in  May,  1873,  when  the  shaft  had  reached  a 
depth  where  it  was  predicted  that  little  water  would  be  found — the  1,700- 
foot  level — the  main  incline  was  progressing  slowly  owing  to  the  inpour- 
ing  water,  which  could  scarcely  be  held  in  check  by  the  pumps.® 

Most  instructive  of  all  is  the  record  of  the  Ophir  Mine,  as  full  official 
reports  are  here  accessible  and  comparatively  exact  estimates  can  be  made 
in  regard  to  the  amount  of  water  raised.  Exploration  in  this  mine  had 
been  practically  abandoned  since  1865,  owing  to  the  entering  floods  of 
water  more  than  to  the  exhaustion  of  its  surface  ore-body.  During  the 
autumn  of  1867  the  company  decided  to  sink  a  new  shaft  east  of  their 
old  works,  and  cut  the  lode  at  a  lower  point,  where  it  was  hoped  that  the 
water  would  not  be  so  troublesome  and  the  quartz  would  be  less  barren. 
Water  was  encountered  in  this  shaft  in  October,  1867,^  when  less  than 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  June  27,  1863.  ^  Ibid.,  March  28, 1869. 

3  Miniug  ami  Scientific  Press,  December  8,  1866.         *  Gold  Hill  News,  April  30, 1868. 

'^Virginia  City  Trespass,  Juue  6,  1863.  « Territorial  Enterprise,  March  28, 1869. 

'  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  April  3,  1839.  '  Mining  and  Scientific  Press,  May  31, 1873. 

s  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  791 ;  Extracts  from  Official  Letters  of  Superintendent  P.  S.  Buckminster,  Nov.  8, 1867. 


296  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

fifty  feet  from  the  surface,  and  it  was  soon  found  necessary  to  put  up  a 
pumping-engine  which,  in  conjunction  with  the  hoisting-tank,  could  raise 
300  gallons  per  minute.^  The  pump  was  of  10-inch  diameter  with  6  feet 
stroke,  giving  an  estimated  capacity  of  24  gallons  per  stroke.  On  the  10th 
of  April,  1868,  sinking  was  begun  anew,^  all  work  having  been  suspended 
for  three  months  owing  to  the  water  influx,  and  for  a  month,  with  the 
pump  making  from  6  to  8i  strokes  per  minute,  it  was  possible  to  continue 
work.  On  June  10th,  the  shaft  being  then  287  feet  deep,  two  12-inch 
plunge-pumps  were  substituted  for  the  two  10-inch  pumps  then  in  use,^ 
which  enabled  the  superintendent  to  cope  with  the  incoming  streams, 
having  an  average  flow  of  16  miner's  inches,  as  he  estimated  June  21, 
1868.  If  this  estimate  was  correct,  the  pumps  were  raising  1,000  tons  of 
water  in  round  numbers  every  24  hours.  This  influx  continued  with 
little  change  until  December,  1868,  when  a  considerable  diminution  in  the 
flow  was  noted,  the  shaft  being  then  537  feet  deep.*  In  October,  1869,  in 
drifting  a  short  distance  from  the  shaft  a  water-chamber  was  cut,°  from 
which  a  flood  poured  so  violently  that  it  rose  irresistibly  in  the  shaft, 
though  the  pumps  were  worked  at  their  full  capacity  and  discharged 
20,000  gallons  hourly."  On  the  6th  of  November  the  water  was  270  feet 
deep  in  the  shaft,'  covering  the  lower  plunge-pump,  which  soon  ceased  to 
work  and  was  submerged  to  a  depth  of  200  feet.*  The  superintendent 
was  aghast.  His  own  mine  did  not  furnish  facts  to  support  his  theory  of 
the  marked  decrease  of  water  with  progress  in  depth.  There  was  only 
one  recourse.  A  new  engine  was  set  up  to  raise  two  bailing-tanks  hold- 
ing 800  gallons,  and  early  in  December,  with  pumps  and  tanks  in  full 
operation,  the  fight  was  renewed  more  vigorously  and  kept  up  without 
intermission,  except  for  the  necessary  repairs,  until  April  11,  1870,  when 
the  drift  was  drained  through  which  the  flood  had  first  poured  six  months 
before.^   The  water  had  proved  a  "monster  elephant,"  as  the  superintendent 

1  p.  S.  Buckminster,  April  2,  1868.  ^Ibid.,  April  10,  1868. 

3 The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  794-796;  Letters  of  H.  H.  Day,  June  10,  1868. 
*  H.  H.  Day,  December  2, 1868.  ^  Ibid.,  October  16,  1869. 

e  Ibid.,  November  16,  1869.  '  Ibid.,  November  6, 1869. 

» Ibid.,  November  10,  1869. 

"  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  796-802 ;  Letters  of  H.  H.  Day,  November  10,  1869,  April  11,  1870,  February  14, 
1870. 


A  FORTUNATE  DELIVEEANOE.  297 

was  compelled  to  admit,  and  the  consumption  of  wood  by  the  engines 
was  "perfectly  frightful,"  but  he  still  was  blind  professedly  to  the  advan- 
tages of  a  drainage  tunnel.  The  powerful  pumps  held  the  water  in  check, 
but  the  strain  on  the  machinery  was  so  great  that  rods  and  gearing  began 
to  break  frequently,  and  valuable  time  was  lost  in  repairs  and  in  pumping 
out  water  which  would  fill  the  lower  levels  whenever  a  pump  was  stopped 
for  any  cause.^  On  January  2, 1872,  when  the  new  superintendent,  Philip 
Deidesheimer,  assumed  charge  of  the  mine,  three  12-inch  plunger-pumps 
and  one  of  10-inch  diameter  were  in  service,  and  146,000  gallons  of  water 
were  raised  daily  from  a  depth  of  over  1,200  feet.  (Depth  of  shaft  Jan- 
uary 1,  1872,  1,255  feet.)' 

If  the  majority  of  the  mines  on  the  lode  had  been  as  troubled  by 
water  as  the  Ophir,  Mr.  Sutro  might  have  used  this  record  with  more 
effect.  The  direct  and  indirect  costs  to  the  Ophir  Company  occasioned 
by  the  presence  of  water  in  their  mine  were  estimated  by  their  new  super- 
intendent at  |6,000  monthly,  or  |72,000  per  year.^  Their  ore  product  for 
several  years  past  had  been  practically  nothing,  so  that  a  clear  saving 
to  the  stockholders  would  have  been  effected  of  at  least  $60,000  yearly  if 
a  tunnel  had  drained  their  mine.  Still  the  Ophir  Mine  was  notoriously 
the  wettest  on  the  lode  in  1871,  and  as  the  tunnel,  if  begun  in  August, 
1867,  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  the  original  contract,  could  not  have 
reached  the  lode  as  early  as  1871,  the  cost  of  pumping  prior  to  that  time 
was  unavoidable.  What  would  be  the  condition  of  the  lode  when  the 
tunnel  was  completed,  and  how  considerable  a  service  would  then  be  ren- 
dered, were  clearly  undeterminable  questions  in  ]871. 

Since  1867  Mr.  Sutro  had  been  endeavoring  with  tireless  energy  to 
raise  money  for  the  prosecution  of  his  scheme  and  to  make  head  against 
the  quiet  but  formidable  opposition  of  the  corporations  controlling  the 
lode.  He  submitted  the  memorial  of  the  Nevada  Legislature  to  the  House 
Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining  in  the  winter  of  1867-68,*  and  set  forth 

'  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  802-808 ;  Letters  of  H.  H.  Day,  May  13,  1870,  June  3,  1870,  June  9,  1870,  May 
5, 1871. 

•The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  807,808;  Letter  of  Philip  Deidesheimer,  Januarys,  1872;  Official  Report, 
March  13,  1872. 

3  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  809 ;  Letter  of  Philip  Deidesheimer,  March  13,  1672. 

<  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  884. 


298  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  claims  of  his  enterprise  to  the  recognition  and  assistance  of  the  nation  so 
earnestly  and  urgently  that  the  committee  became  warmly  interested  in  the 
enterprise,  and  at  length  reported  to  the  House,  recommending  a  loan  of 
$5,000,000,  with  a  mortgage  to  the  Government  on  all  the  property  of  the 
Tunnel  Company.^  The  impeachment  of  the  President  was  a  matter  of  such 
engrossing  interest  that  no  action  was  taken  by  Congress  upon  this  report, 
and  Mr.  Sutro  was  naturally  disheartened,  though  never  flinching  from  his 
undertaking.  In  the  summer  of  1869  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of 
the  House  visited  the  Comstock  Lode,^  and  went  away  strongly  impressed 
with  the  advantages  of  the  tunnel.  A  few  months  after  their  visit,  as 
Mr.  Sutro  had  succeeded  in  obtaining  a  little  capital  by  subscriptions  in 
Nevada  and  California,  work  was  begun  on  a  small  scale  at  the  mouth  of  the 
proposed  tunnel  on  the  19th  of  October,  1869.^  When  once  begun  Mr. 
Sutro  was  determined  that  it  should  never  cease  until  the  tunnel  was  com- 
pleted, and  his  struggle  to  raise  funds  for  its  prosecution  is  one  of  the 
most  extraordinary  financial  exploits  on  record.  The  outbreak  of  the 
Franco-Prussian  war  was  fatal  to  his  plans  for  raising  money  in  Europe 
at  the  moment  when  they  seemed  most  promising  (July,  1870-71),*  and, 
foiled  in  this  endeavor,  he  applied  again  to  Congress,  in  the  spring  of  1871, 
for  a  commission  of  engineer  officers  to  make  an  examination  of  the  con- 
dition of  the  lode^  and  the  utility  of  the  projected  tunnel,  hoping  to  secure 
an  appropriation  in  aid  of  his  scheme  if  the  report  of  the  commission  was 
favorable.  His  application  was  granted,  and  in  accordance  with  a  vote  of 
Congress,  approved  April  4,  1871,  H.  G.  Wright  and  J.  G.  Foster,  Lieu- 
tenant-Colonels of  Engineers  and  Brevet  Major  Generals,  U.  S.  A.,  in  con- 
junction with  Professor  Wesley  Newcomb,  G.  E.,  were  appointed  as  the 
board  of  commissioners.  In  December,  1871,  this  commission  reported 
favorably  upon  the  geological  and  practical  value  of  the  tunnel  as  an 
exploring  work  to  determine  the  ore-bearing  character  of  the  Comstock 
and  other  ledges  lying  to  the  east,  at  great  depths;  but  its  utility  as  a 

'  Report  H.  R.,  No.  50,  Second  Session,  Fortieth  Congress. 
»  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  886, 887. 
•  '  lUd.,  p.  889 ;  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  20,  1869. 

<I4«i.,  p.  891. 
s/Jirf.,  p.  893. 


A  FORTUNATE  DELIVERANCE.  299 

drainway  and  as  affording  ventilation  to  the  mines  was  judged  to  be  small 
in  comparison  with  its  cost.  Whether  reduction-works  could  be  profitably 
erected  at  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  for  the  concentration  of  low-grade 
ores — a  most  important  question — was  left  undetermined;  but  unless  a 
more  complete  examination  should  establish  this  point  beyond  doubt  the 
commission  did  not  consider  that  the  extension  of  the  tunnel  would  prove 
an  economical  method  of  operating  the  Gomstock  Mines. ^  As  it  was  not 
probable  that  Congress  would  vote  a  large  subsidy  to  explore  a  ledge  or 
ledges  which  private  enterprise  was  rapidly  developing,  the  report  of  the 
commission  was  practically  a  serious  blow  to  Mr.  Sutro's  hopes  of  aid 
from  the  National  Government  in  his  project.  He  must  have  perceived 
this,  but  doughtily  refused  to  confess  it,  and  made  a  strong  plea  for  his 
losing  cause,  ably  combating  the  conclusions  of  the  commission  before 
the  Congressional  Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining,  and  questioning  their 
premises  fairly  on  the  ground  that  they  were  derived  in  great  measure 
from  ex  parte  affidavits  made  by  the  opponents  of  his  scheme,  the  super- 
intendents of  the  Comstock  Mines.  So  ingenious  and  persuasive  an  advo- 
cate was  he  that,  after  an  examination  of  the  commissioners  and  other 
witnesses,  the  Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining,  in  face  of  a  plainly  unfa- 
vorable report  by  the  commission,  reversed  or  ignored  their  principal 
conclusions  and  reported  in  favor  of  a  loan  by  the  United  States  of  a  sum 
not  to  exceed  $2,000,000  in  aid  of  the  enterprise.^  The  bill  was  not 
passed  by  Congress,  but  Mr.  Sutro  could  not  provide  against  this  failure. 
It  is  simple  justice  to  recognize  his  able  presentation  of  the  tunnel  project 
and  his  unflinching  contest  with  discouragements  of  every  kind.  Such 
uncommon  energy  is  certain  to  gain  its  end  at  length,  unless  the  scheme 
in  view  is  absurd  and  unprofitable.  Mr.  Sutro's  plan  was  practicable  and 
promised  rich  returns  to  investors.  In  September,  1871,  he  succeeded,  at 
last,  in  obtaining  a  subscription  of  $650,000  to  the  stock  of  the  company, 
increased  shortly  afterwards  to  $1 ,450,000,  from  English  and  European 
capitalists  whom  he  had  persuaded  of  the  advantages  of  the  investment.^ 

'  Forty-Second  Congress,  Second  Session,  Ex.  Doc.  No.  15 ;   The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  6-13,  Report  of  Com- 
mission. 

^  Eeport  of  the  Committee  on  Mines  and  Mining ;  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  pp.  956-965. 
«  The  Sutro  Tunnel,  p.  895. 


300  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Work  at  the  tunnel  was  immediately  pushed  on  an  enlarged  scale.  As 
many  laborers  as  could  be  employed  to  advantage  were  engaged;  the  nec- 
essary machinery  was  bought,  and  the  adit  in  the  hills,  which  had  been 
called,  contemptuously,  "Sutro's  coyote  hole,"^  became  the  greatest  min- 
ing enterprise  in  America. 


'  Gold  HUl  News,  October  13,  1860 ;  Editorial. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE   GREAT   BONANZA. 

The  control  over  the  productive  mines  on  the  lode  held  by  the  Bank 
of  California  and  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company  had  been  broken, 
as  was  shown  by  the  coup  of  Messrs.  Alvinza  Hayward  and  John  P. 
Jones  in  acquiring  the  Crown  Point  Mine  bonanza  and  by  the  subsequent 
formation  of  the  Nevada  Mill  and  Mining  Company.  It  could  no  longer 
be  said  that  a  single  organization  was  the  sole  ruler  of  the  Comstock 
Lode,  for  its  sway  was  divided,  and  it  was  shortly  to  be  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  a  second-class  power  by  the  rise  of  a  new  association  styled, 
half  soberly,  the  "four  bonanza  kings." 

Mr.  John  W.  Mackey,  an  Irishman  by  birth,  came  to  the  United 
States,  when  a  young  man,  and  worked  for  a  time  as  a  ship-carpenter  in 
New  York.  The  gold  fields  of  California  attracted  him  to  the  Pacific 
coast,  and  he  worked  as  a  miner,  with  ordinary  success,  until  he  crossed 
the  Sierras  and  began  mining  on  the  Comstock  Lode.  Here  the  traits  of 
character  were  first  remarked  which,  coupled  with  exceptional  good  for- 
tune, have  made  him  one  of  the  foremost  miners  in  America.  His  ambi- 
tion if  narrow  was  far-reaching.  He  sought  for  wealth  as  a  world-moving 
lever,  for  with  money  he  could,  as  he  thought,  attain  any  end  which 
seemed  to  him  worth  prizing.  The  risks  and  chances  of  mining  allured 
him.  He  cared  little  for  cards,  for  in  the  heart  of  the  great  lode  he  saw 
a  game  played  daily  which  dwarfed  all  other  gambling,  seeing  that  health, 
fortune,  and  life  itself  were  staked  on  the  turn  of  a  drill  or  the  stroke  of 
a  pick.  He  saw  millionaires  pouring  their  wealth  down  the  Comstock 
Mine  shafts,  and  miners  toiling  night  and  day  in  gloomy  galleries,  blasting 
and  cutting  their  way  painfully  foot  by  foot,  groping  in  the  darkness  for 
unseen  veins  of  ore,  crushed  by  falling  rocks,  stifled  by  fires,  driven 

(301) 


302  HISTORY  OF  THE  GOMSTOCK  LODE. 

back  by  inpouring  floods,  fainting  from  heat,  mangled  by  premature  blasts 
and  horrible  falls,  but  never  giving  up  the  search  while  strength  and  life 
endured.  He  saw  the  weary  struggle  going  on  year  after  year  without 
gaining  its  end,  and  sudden  smiles  of  fortune  as  well,  by  which  the  ruined 
man  became  rich  beyond  his  hopes.  The  whirl  of  the  mighty  lottery- 
wheel  beneath  his  feet  riveted  his  eyes,  and  he  longed  to  be  one  of  the 
puissant  croupiers  who  turned  the  wheel  and  questioned  fate.  Not  to 
make  money  for  the  pleasure  of  money-making  alone,  not  to  be  enabled 
to  scatter  gold  broadcast  with  prodigal  hands,  not  to  be  known  as  a 
nabob  or  bonanza  king,  but  to  win  a  name  as  master  and  manager  of  the 
greatest  mines  in  the  world — this  was  what  he  sought,  as  he  declares;^ 
this  was  what  he  won.  Fortune  was  kind  to  him,  but  he  left  no  stone 
unturned  to  achieve  success.  His  restless  eye  surveyed  the  lode  from 
end  to  end,  and  he  studied  every  move,  even  before  he  had  a  chance  to 
figure  as  a  player.  His  insight  appeared  extraordinary  when  his  ventures 
turned  to  gold,  but  he  possessed  no  divining-rod  except  close  observation, 
thoughtful  consideration,  and  a  swift  grasp  of  opportunities.  His  cool 
common  sense  was  a  rarely-erring  guide.  Though  apparently  a  desperate 
gambler  he  took  no  ill-considered  risks,  for  he  never  professed  to  see 
farther  into  the  lode  than  could  be  seen  by  the  aid  of  the  pick  and  drill, 
and  his  brain  was  not  heated  by  visions  of  ore-bodies,  which  existed  in 
the  fancy  of  others.  Hence  he  discerned  clearly  when  to  hold  and  when 
to  sell  mining  stocks,  one  of  the  rarest  faculties,  to  judge  by  results,  which 
has  been  possessed  on  the  Pacific  coast. 

A  man  whose  actions  are  so  nerved  and  balanced  is  certain  to  rise  to 
distinction  if  opportunities  are  offered.  The  day  laborer  became  first 
superintendent  of  the  Caledonia  Tunnel  and  Mining  Company ;  next  a 
large  owner  in  the  rich  Kentuck  Mine,  and  associating  himself  with  Mr. 
James  G.  Fair,  the  two  obtained  control  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine  at 
the  election  of  trustees  in  1869.  A  year  before,  the  control  had  been 
gained  after  an  extraordinary  contest,  during  which  the  price  of  the  mine 
shares  rose  from  $1,260  in  January  to  |7,100  in  the  following  month  ;^ 
yet  this  conflict  of  speculators  proved  a  farcical  struggle,  for  when  the 

»  John  W.  Mackey.  *  San  Francisco  Stock  Report  Tables,  December  22,  1879. 


THE  GREAT  BONANZA.  303 

mine  was  won  it  seemed  hardly  worth  keeping,  as  only  16,536  tons  of  low- 
grade  ore  were  taken  out  in  1868,  and  no  dividends  were  declared.^  The 
stock  naturally  fell  from  |2,900  per  share  in  March,  1868,  to  |41.50  per 
share  in  the  following  September.-  Two  of  the  shrewdest  observers  on 
the  lode  began  quietly  to  buy  it  in  at  the  lowest  prices,  and  were  so  suc- 
cessful that  considerable  surprise  was  expressed  when  the  Gold  Hill  News 
announced  in  February,  1869,  that  "as  J.  G.  Fair  and  J.  W.  Mackey,  of 
Virginia  City,  own  over  400  shares  of  Hale  &  Norcross  stock,  they  will  be 
likely  to  control  the  election  of  officers  in  March ;"^  but  the  statement  was 
verified.  A  new  board  of  directors  was  chosen,  Mr.  Fair  was  appointed 
superintendent,  the  product  of  the  mine  was  tripled  in  1869  and  quad- 
rupled in  the  following  year,  and  $728,000  was  paid  in  dividends  to  the 
stockholders  during  this  period.* 

How  far  this  success  was  due  to  the  skill  and  energy  of  the  new 
superintendent  cannot  be  determined,  but  the  signal  ability  of  his  man- 
agement was  recognized.  Like  his  associate,  Mr.  Fair  was  a  native  of 
Ireland,  and  like  him,  also,  had  emigrated  to  America  in  his  youth,  and 
learned  the  art  of  mining  by  varied  experience  in  California.  The  reported 
riches  of  the  new  silver-ledge  district  induced  him  to  cross  the  Sierras  in 
1860  and  take  part  in  the  contest  going  on  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Davidson. 
Though  placed  in  charge  of  the  Ophir  Mine  in  1866,^  and  active  in  other 
enterprises,  his  peculiar  fitness  for  the  position  of  mine  superintendent 
was  first  unmistakably  shown  in  developing  and  extracting  the  Hale  & 
Norcross  bonanza.  He  was  quick  to  perceive  the  value  of  any  novel 
mechanical  appliances  of  merit,  and  exceptionally  ingenious  in  designing 
and  adapting  them  to  the  requirements  of  his  work.  His  skill  in  detect- 
ing and  tracing  up  all  indications  of  the  existence  of  ore-bodies  was  sur- 
prising even  to  trained  observers,  for*  so  acute  was  his  judgment  that  it 
resembled  an  instinct.     Old  miners  said  of  him,  admiringly,  that  he  "had 

'  Fiscal  year  ending  January  31,  1869;  Eighth  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mining  Company, 
March  10,  1869. 

'Quoted  prices  after  election  of  Trustees  in  February;  San  Francisco  Daily  Stock  Report  Tables,  Decem- 
ber 22,  1879. 

3  Gold  Hill  News,  February  27,  1869. 

■"Ninth  and  Tenth  Annual  Reports  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  tlining  Company,  1870,  1871. 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  February  8, 1866. 


304  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

a  fine  nose  for  ore,"  and  the  apt  metaphor  seemed  scarcely  a  figure  of 
speech.  He  understood  the  requirements  of  his  position  thoroughly  and 
was  competent  to  perform  any  duty  which  devolved  upon  him.  The  dark 
and  intricate  galleries  of  his  mine  were  an  open  book  to  him;  every  drift, 
cross-cut,  winze,  and  slope  were  joined  and  pictured  forth  in  his  compre- 
hension, and  the  most  minute  details  did  not  escape  him.  He  passed 
through  his  mine  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night,  and  no  lagging  or 
shiftless  service  under  him  was  possible.  His  rule  was  autocratic,  his 
oversight  constant,  and  his  exactions  strict;  yet  he  was  a  just  master,  for 
honest  and  zealous  work  was  well  rewarded  and  encouraged,  while  incom- 
petent men  in  any  position  were  transferred  or  discharged;  but  no  man 
succeeded  in  shifting  the  punishment  for  his  own  faults  upon  the  head  of 
another.  All  soon  realized  that  they  were  under  the  eye  of  an  overseer 
whose  sight  could  not  be  blinded  by  slothful  tricks  or  lame  excuses,  and 
worked  unremittingly  until  the  results  of  their  work  were  seen  in  the 
developed  bonanza.  It  is  true  that  his  method  of  supervision  and  gov- 
ernment was  often  criticised,  and  sometimes,  doubtless,  with  justice. 
His  manner  was  generally  quiet  and  urbane,  even  when  he  was  at  heart 
incensed;  but  in  spite  of  this  apparent  mildness  he  gave  such  scant  grace 
that  men  who  thought  themselves  secure  from  suspicion  even  were  dis- 
charged without  warning.  Though  apparently  frank-spoken  his  words  were 
well  considered,  and  he  certainly  did  not  wear  his  heart  on  his  sleeve. 
His  watchfulness  was  alleged  to  approach  espionage,  and  his  devices  for 
detecting  breaches  of  duty  were  sometimes  more  apt  than  commendable. 

It  was  soon  apparent  that  the  union  of  two  such  men  as  John  W. 
Mackey  and  James  G.  Fair  was  a  strong  power  in  shaping  the  future  of 
Comstock  mining.  With  them,  also,  were  joined,  in  the  direction  of  the 
Hale  &  Norcross  Mine,  two  citizens  of  San  Francisco,  James  C.  Flood  and 
William  O'Brien.  The  last-named  trustee  was  associated  with  the  others 
by  force  of  circumstances  rather  than  character,  adding  little  strength  to 
the  combination  except  his  proportion  of  capital;  but  his  partner,  Mr. 
Flood,  who  was  chosen  president  of  the  new  board  in  1869,  soon  evinced 
such  marked  talents  as  a  financier  and  stock  manipulator  that  no  one 
questioned  his  ability  to  fill  the  leading  position  in  the  mining  exchange 


THE  GREAT  BONANZA.  305 

and  banking  circles  into  which  his  fortune  naturally  thrust  him.  In  this 
association  a  watchful  observer  like  Mr.  Sharon  might  have  seen  a  power 
in  embryo  which  was  more  likely  to  sap  the  influence  of  the  Bank  of 
California  on  the  lode  than  any  other  existing  or  probable  combination. 

Having  gained  possession  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine,  Mackey 
and  Fair  began  to  purchase  mill  property,  as  they  were  by  no  means 
disposed  to  allow  the  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Company  to  monopolize  the 
profits  from  the  reduction  of  ore.     The  Bacon  Mill,  so  called,  of  Silver 
City,  was  first  to  begin  work  for  them,  March  1,  1869,'  crushing  ore  from 
the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine,  and  to  this  was  added,  in  July  of  that  year, 
the  French  &  Sullivan  Mills  adjoining,  refitted  and  enlarged.''    As  the  ore 
product  which  they  controlled  increased,  other  mills  were  acquired  to  con- 
vert the  ore  into  bullion  without  delay,  and  with  enlarging  capital  their 
plans  expanded  proportionately.     The  Bullion  Mine,  near  the  topograph- 
ical centre  of  the  lode,  had  produced  nothing  since  its  opening;  but  its 
barrenness  was  not  held  to  furnish  any  conclusion  against  the  existence 
of  an  ore-body  at  an  unknown  depth ;  and  perhaps,  on  the  common  theory 
of  the  equalized  distribution  of  ore  at  different  depths  throughout  a 
lode,  a  mine  which  had  proved  barren  for  years  might  be  more  likely 
to  become  productive  than  one  which  had  already  yielded  a  bonanza. 
Mr.  Mackey  at  any  rate,  was  disposed  to  make  the  experiment,  and 
caused  himself  to  be  elected  a  trustee  and  superintendent  of  the  Bullion 
Mining  Company.'    A  year  later  his  partner,  Mr.  Fair,  was  chosen  super- 
intendent of  the  Savage  Mining  Company,*  and  proceeded  to  develop  their 
mine  with  the  same  skill  which  he  was  showing  in  the  adjoining  mine  of 
the  Hale  &  Norcross  Company.    But  the  ablest  superintendents  cannot 
find  ore  where  none  exists.    Mackey's  search  in  the  Bullion  Mine  was 
unrewarded,   and   though  Fair  prospected    energetically,   defraying   all 
expenses  with  the  low-grade  ore  which  still  existed  in  considerable  quan- 
tity in  the  mine,'  he  failed  to  develop  a  new  bonanza;  and  when  he  resigned 
charge  of  the  mine,  in  1871,  he  was  ready  to  turn  with  his  partner  to  an 

'  Gold  Hill  News,  March  3,  1869.  °Gold  Hill  News,  July  19,  1869. 

'  lUd,  July  12,  1869.  ■*  I^id.,  November  28, 1870. 

'■Ibid.,  July  22, 1871 ;  Report  of  Superintendent  Savage  Mining  Company,  for  year  ending  June  30,  1871. 
20  H   C 


306  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

untried  section  of  the  lode.  The  Hale  &  Norcross  bonanza  was  exhausted, 
though  many  thousand  tons  of  low-grade  ore  remained,  and  if  the  partners 
hoped  to  hold  their  place  among  the  leading  mine-owners  of  the  lode 
another  venture  was  clearly  called  for. 

Between  the  Best  &  Belcher  and  the  Ophir  mines  lay  a  section,  1,310 
feet  in  length,  which  had  been  divided  up  by  a  number  of  locators,  as 
noted  in  a  previous  chapter.  In  the  northern  part  of  this  section  some 
small  bodies  of  paying  ore  had  been  discovered  near  the  surface,  but  they 
were  soon  cut  out,  and  as  the  lode  below  appeared  hopelessly  barren  and 
flooded  with  water  no  attempt  was  made  to  sink  shafts  deeper  than  300 
or  400  feet.  Yet  no  barren  section  of  the  lode  was  so  rich  in  possibilities, 
for  it  lay  between  two  mines  of  proven  richness,  and  there  was  no  indi- 
cation of  any  fault  or  break  in  the  line  of  the  lode.  The  barren  cover 
might  well  be  the  shell  of  a  bonanza.  The  failure  to  develop  this  section 
was  due  to  the  lack  of  well-directed  effort,  and  it  afforded  a  striking  illus- 
tration of  a  common  habit  among  prospectors :  they  rush  to  a  district 
and  make  locations  as  near  the  first  bonanza  as  possible;  then  they 
scratch  up  the  ground  vigorously  for  a  short  time,  but  if  they  find  nothing 
they  are  soon  disheartened  or  unable  through  poverty  to  work  longer, 
and  under  this  stress  sell  out  for  a  song  or  determine  to  hold  their  claims 
Avithout  working  as  long  as  the  mining  laws  permit,  in  the  anticipation  of 
some  change  for  the  better,  for  they  are  as  hopeful  as  Micawber  of  some- 
thing turning  up,  and  generally  contrive  to  rub  along,  evading  the  lax 
laws  on  one  pretence  or  another.  They  may  be  skilled  miners,  but  they 
are  not  as  a  rule  patient  or  industrious,  and  a  combination  among  them 
to  develop  an  outwardly  barren  claim  is  unthought  of  or  impracticable, 
for  they  demand  quick  returns  from  their  ledges  and  have  no  capital  to 
spend  in  deep  mining.  One  may  induce  some  capitalist  to  furnish  the 
funds  required  in  consideration  of  a  share  in  his  claim;  but  this  can 
rarely  be  done  except  in  surface  prospecting,  as  for  mining  on  any  large 
scale  more  perfect  organization  and  abler  hands  are  required.  The  capi- 
talist will  not  make  large  advances  unless  he  is  allowed  to  control  their 
expenditure,  and  the  prospector  dislikes  to  let  the  control  of  his  claim 
pass  out  of  his  hands,  fearing  that  he  may  be  cheated  out  of  the  remnant 


THE  GREAT  BONANZA.  307 

left  him.  Hence  claims  have  lain  unproductive  year  after  year,  because 
their  owners  were  too  poor  to  work,  unwilling  to  sell,  and  unable  to 
organize  a  company  on  any  satisfactory  basis.  The  risks  and  expenses 
of  silver  mining  are  so  great  that  only  men  of  large  wealth  can  afford  to 
incur  them,  and  it  is  natural  that  the  control  of  mines  should  pass  into 
their  hands.  No  laws  can  be  devised  to  prevent  this  condition  of  things, 
even  if  such  laws  were  desirable.  It  is  the  province  of  laws  to  regulate 
and  guard,  but  not  to  prevent,  the  expansion  of  the  mining  industry  of 
the  nation,  and  while  the  rights  of  the  poor  should  be  fairly  protected, 
the  theory  of  law  admits  of  no  discrimination  against  any  class,  whether 
rich  or  poor.  Restriction  of  monopoly  should  never  be  a  convertible 
term  for  a  crusade  against  capitalists,  and  it  is  absurd  to  say  that  the 
interests  of  the  poor  were  justly  maintained  through  regulations  which 
allowed  prospectors  to  hamper  the  growth  of  a  district  by  holding  more 
claims  than  they  were  able  to  develop  or  willing  to  sell  at  their  market 
value ;  for  as  soon  as  the  first  location  in  a  district  has  been  made  it  is 
an  easy  matter  to  trace  out  and  stake  off  surrounding  ledges,  and  pros- 
pectors deserve  only  a  reasonable  compensation  for  their  labor  and  risks. 
If  the  prospects  are  really  alluring,  purchasers  for  claims  can  usually  be 
found  without  much  delay,  if  the  holders  are  disposed  to  accept  reason- 
able offers ;  but  to  set  imaginary  values  on  their  claims,  and  to  act  the 
part  of  a  dog  in  the  manger  unless  their  demands  are  acceded  to,  is  neither 
prudent  nor  fair ;  for  if  capitalists  were  constrained  to  pay  the  prices 
which  sanguine  prospectors  often  ask  for  their  undeveloped  ledges  the 
locators  would  soon  be  far  richer  than  the  buyers,  and  if  prospectors  are 
allowed  to  hold  their  high-priced  claims  indefinitely,  by  virtue  of  a  lame 
pretense  of  development,  the  mining  industry  will  be  seriously  affected 
and  the  whole  nation  will  suffer  thereby. 

The  section  between  the  Ophir  and  the  Gould  &  Curry  was  held,  at 
the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  lode,  at  a  price  so  high  that  capitalists 
preferred  to  buy  other  sections  of  apparently  equal  value  which  were 
offered  at  lower  rates.  So  the  Gould  &  Curry,  Savage,  Hale  &  Norcross, 
and  other  mines  were  bought  and  developed,  while  the  overrated  section 
was  left  on  the  hands  of  its  owners.     When  later  they  wished  to  sell, 


308  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  available  capital  had  been  invested  in  developed  mines,  and  the 
barren  section  went  begging.  The  titles  to  it  were  clouded,  for  the  orig- 
inal locations  were  loosely  drawn  and  recorded,  the  assignments  of  differ- 
ent owners  Avere  scattered  far  and  wide,  and  the  register  of  deeds  was 
incomplete.  If  the  mining  laws  had  been  strictly  regarded  the  greater 
part  of  the  section  might  have  been  re-located  legally,  but  the  sentiment 
of  the  district  was  averse  to  this  procedure  at  the  time,  and  no  one  cared 
to  risk  the  probable  contest.  As  long  as  the  re-locator's  mine  was  barren 
he  might  be  allowed  to  work  with  little  opposition,  but  as  soon  as  he 
should  obtain  ore,  a  crowd  of  claimants  would  cover  the  bonanza  and 
dispute  its  possession.  The  most  preposterous  titles  would  be  trumped 
up  as  fighting  claims,  so-called,  and  the  discoverer  of  the  bonanza  might 
count  himself  fortunate  if  he  rescued  his  original  investment  from  the 
hungry  mouths  of  contestants  and  lawyers. 

For  a  number  of  years,  therefore,  the  section  lay  unproductive  for 
the  want  of  workers,  purchasers,  or  relocators.  The  Central  Company 
(No.  1)  had,  indeed,  sunk  a  shaft  to  the  depth  of  562  feet  in  1864,  but 
they  found  no  ore  below  the  400-foot  level,  and  the  influx  of  hot  water 
was  so  great  that  the  company  became  disheartened  and  attempted  no 
further  progress.'  North  and  south  of  it  the  ledge  resounded  with  the 
reverberation  of  blasts,  the  strokes  of  picks,  and  the  churning  of  drills; 
but  within  its  bounding  planes  there  was  no  sound  of  life  and  industry. 
The  Territorial  Enterprise  suggested  repeatedly,  in  1867,  the  most  feasible 
course  for  its  owners  to  pursue.'^  "Why  do  not  the  California,  Central, 
White  &  Murphy,  Dick  Sides,  and  Best  &  Belcher  form  a  combination  and 
sink  a  prospecting  shaft  to  the  eastward  on  a  line  with  the  new  works  of 
the  other  leading  companies?  The  companies  named  own  over  1,500  feet 
of  ground  in  the  heart  of  the  great  lead,  yet  make  not  the  slightest  move 
toward  its  development."  The  advice  of  the  clear  -  sighted  city  editor 
was  not  acted  upon  until  1869,  when  four  of  the  small  associations,  the 
Central  No,  2,  Kinney,  White  &  Murphy,  and  Sides,  owning  860  feet  on 
the  ledge  line,  determined  to  prosecute  the  search  for  ore  systematically.* 

'  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1869,  p.  97. 

=  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  27,  October  16,  1867. 

^  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1869,  p.  90. 


THE  GREAT  BONANZA.  309 

They  had  previously  (June  7,  1867)  combined  their  interests  by  incorpo- 
ration as  the  Virginia  Consolidated  Mining  Company/  and  had  rested 
content  with  this  achievement  and  attempted  no  work  of  consequence; 
but  in  April,  1869,  an  assessment  was  levied  and  work  was  begun  with 
some  vigor.  During  1869  and  the  following  year  $161,349.41  was 
expended  in  prospecting  without  success,^  and  the  stockholders  lost  heart 
completely;  no  more  assessments  could  be  levied,  and  shares  fell  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1871,  to  $11,^  at  which  rate  the  whole  mine  (11,800  shares)  was 
only  valued  at  $18,850. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  this  section  when  the  eyes  of  the  four 
venturesome  speculators,  Mackey,  Fair,  Flood,  and  O'Brien,  became  fixed 
on  it  attentively,  and  they  determined  to  stake  their  capital  upon  the 
chance  of  finding  in  it  a  hidden  bonanza.  Their  purchase  was  merely  a 
mining  gamble,  but  it  was  a  shrewd  and  justifiable  one,  if  adventuring 
capital  in  any  unproductive  mine  is  ever  a  sound  investment.  The  cost  of 
acquiring  the  mine  at  market  rates  in  1871  could  hardly  have  exceeded 
$50,000,  and  its  lode  section  lay  between  mines  of  proved  richness.  Com- 
petent attorneys  were  employed  to  make  a  careful  investigation  of  the  titles 
bought  and  to  secure  an  undisputed  and  unclouded  possession  of  the  prop- 
erty.* This  was  a  most  difficult  task,  but  a  satisfactory  title  was  finally 
obtained,  and  the  four  speculators  formally  took  control  of  the  com- 
pany on  the  11th  of  January,  1872.^  Under  the  direction  of  James  G.  Fair 
a  large  shaft  was  at  once  projected  and  the  work  of  sinking  rapidly 
pushed.  At  the  same  time  a  drift  from  the  1,200-foot  level  of  the 
Gould  &  Curry  Mine  was  continued  north,  through  the  Best  &  Belcher, 
into  the  Consolidated  Virginia  section.®  At  first  the  miners  cut  their  way 
through  barren  rock;  but  in  the  Best  &  Belcher  Mine  a  thin  seam  of 
ore  was  found,  extending  northward  over  the  boundary  line.  This  seam 
was  traced  by  Mr.  Fair,  as  the  best  guide  through  the  ledge,  and  followed 
foot  by  foot  as  a  thread  leading  to  a  clew.    Sometimes  it  narrowed  to 

'  President's  Eeport,  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1877,  p.  5. 

'  Ibid,,  pp.  5,  6 ;  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  6, 1878. 

'  San  Francisco  Daily  Stock  Eeport  Tables,  December  33,  1879. 

■*  George  K.  Wells,  San  Francisco,  Cal.,  Trustee  of  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1879. 

'  Annual  Report  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1877,  p.  5.  ^  James  G.  Fair. 


310  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

a  film  of  clay,  but  it  was  never  wholly  lost  to  the  eye  of  the  man  who 
was  seeking  it  as  the  bloodhound  follows  his  quarry/^  It  was  traced  for 
more  than  a  hundred  feet  into  the  Consolidated  Virginia  ground,  but 
the  clew  seemed  as  far  off  as  ever.  Others  began  to  regard  the  seam  as 
a  will-o'-the-wisp  and  the  pursuit  as  a  wild-goose  chase.  More  than 
f  200,000  had  been  spent  in  the  search  for  a  boiianza,^  and  the  treasury 
of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Company  was  nearly  empty.  Further 
assessments  seemed  necessary,  and  the  available  funds  of  the  four 
leading  stockholders  were  not  sufficient  to  endure  a  prolonged  drain. 
At  this  crisis  Mr.  Fair  became  sick  and  was  obliged  to  leave  the  pros- 
ecution of  the  work  to  others  for  a  month.-  During  his  absence  the 
drift  was  turned  toward  the  east  and  cut  for  many  feet  without  success, 
but  on  his  return  to  the  mine  he  persisted  in  following  the  apparently 
endless  thread.  Eleven  feet  beyond  the  point  where  he  renewed  work, 
at  a  distance  of  178  feet  from  the  north  boundary  of  the  Best  &  Belcher 
Mine,  a  vein  of  ore  seven  feet  in  width,  and  assaying  $60  to  the  ton, 
was  cut  in  February,  1873.  His  judgment  was  justified,  and  the  first 
presage  of  the  great  richness  of  the  mine  was  given.  Two  smaller  ore- 
bodies  were  found  in  close  connection,  and  on  the  1st  day  of  March, 
1873,  the  main  ore-vein  had  widened  to  12  feet,  and  25  tons  were  taken 
out  daily .^  The  shaft  was  then  710  feet  deep,  and  its  progress  was  urged 
as  rapidly  as  possible,  for  the  atmosphere  in  the  long  prospecting  drift 
was  becoming  unbearably  foul  and  hot  for  lack  of  a  ventilating  draught, 
in  spite  of  the  supply  of  fresh  air  forced  in  constantly  by  powerful  blow- 
ers. In  October,  1873,  the  shaft  reached  the  level  of  the  drift,  and  the 
strong  current  which  passed  between  the  distant  shafts  of  the  -  Gould  & 
Curry  and  Consolidated  Virginia  mines  was  welcomed  as  a  true  bonanza. 
In  the  course  of  a  few  weeks  a  drift  ranging  to  the  southeast  cut  into  a 
rich  ore-body  at  a  p.oint  250  feet  from  the  shaft.  Skilled  miners  can  take 
out  ore  through  a  narrow  drift  with  surprising  rapidity  when  the  work  is 
pressed  by  an  able  superintendent.     Within  fourteen  days  a  chamber  was 


1  Total  assessments  from  April,  1869,  to  June  11,  1873,  $438,499.53 ;  Annual  Report  Consolidated  Vir- 
ginia Mining  Company,  1877,  p.  5. 
-  James  G.  Fair. 
3  Territorial  Enterprise,  March  2, 1873. 


THE  GEEAT  BONANZA.  311 

cut  in  the  ledge  from  30  to  54  feet  in  width  and  20  feet  in  height,  and  a 
drift  extended  140  feet  through  the  vein.  Walls,  roof,  and  floor  were  still 
ore-surfaces,  assaying  from  |93  to  |632  per  ton.^ 

The  lid,  so  to  speak,  of  that  wonderful  ore-casket,  termed  commonly 
the  Big  Bonanza,  had  been  lifted  off.  Of  its  magnitude  and  richness  all 
were  then  ignorant.  No  discovery  which  matches  it  has  been  made  on  this 
earth  from  the  day  when  the  first  miner  struck  a  ledge  with  his  rude  pick 
until  the  present.  The  plain  facts  are  as  marvellous  as  a  Persian  tale, 
for  the  young  Aladdin  did  not  see  in  the  glittering  case  of  the  genii  such 
fabulous  riches  as  were  lying  in  that  dark  womb  of  rock.  The  miner's 
pick  and  drill  are  more  potent  than  the  magician's  wand.  Under  their 
resistless  touch  the  bars  of  the  treasure-house  were  broken  through  and 
its  hoard  revealed  to  the  dazzled  eyes  of  the  invaders,  The  wonder  grew 
as  its  depths  were  searched  out  foot  by  foot.  The  bonanza  was  cut  at  a 
point  1,167  feet  below  the  surface,  and  as  the  shaft  went  down  it  was 
pierced  again  at  the  1,200-foot  level;  still  the  same  body  of  ore  was  found, 
but  wider  and  longer  than  above.  One  hundred  feet  deeper,  and  the 
prying  pick  and  drill  told  the  same  story;  yet  another  hundred  feet,  and 
the  mass  appeared  to  be  still  swelling.  When,  finally,  the  1,500-foot 
level  was  reached  and  ore  richer  than  any  before  met  with  was  disclosed,^ 
the  fancy  of  the  coolest  brains  ran  wild.  How  far  this  great  bonanza 
would  extend  none  could  predict,  but  its  expansion  seemed- to  keep  pace 
with  the  most  sanguine  imaginings.  To  explore  it  thoroughly  was  to  cut 
it  out  bodily;  but  the  systematic  search  through  it  was  a  continual  reve- 
lation. Drifts  were  cut  lengthwise  in  the  mass  and  prolonged  hundreds 
of  feet  beyond  the  northern  boundary  of  the  mine  without  passing  into 
barren  rock;  cross-cuts  showed  that  its  known  width  was  from  150  to  320 
feet;^  winzes  perforated  level  after  level  as  ventilating  chimneys  and  ore- 
chutes,  and  the  heart  of  the  mass  was  proved  to  be  as  rich  as  the  sur- 
face layers.  The  scene  within  this  imperial  treasure-chamber  was  a  stir- 
ring sight.     Cribs  of  timber  were  piled  in  successive  stages  from  basement 


I  The  Big  Bonanza,  pp.  471, 472. 

"The  Big  Bonanza,  pp. 472, 473;    Superintendent's  Eeport,  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company, 
December  31,  1874. 

3 /6iU,  1874,  1875. 


312  HISTOEY  OF  THE  GOMSTOCK  LODE. 

to  dome  four  hundred  feet  above,  and  everywhere  men  were  at  work  in 
changing  shifts,  descending  and  ascending  in  the  crowded  cages,  clamber- 
ing up  to  their  assigned  stopes  with  swinging  lanterns  or  flickering  can- 
dles, picking  and  drilling  the  crumbling  ore,  or  pushing  hues  of  loaded 
cars  to  the  stations  at  the  shaft.  Flashes  of  exploding  powder  were 
blazing  from  the  rent  faces  of  the  stopes;  blasts  of  gas  and  smoke  filled 
the  connecting  drifts;  muffled  roars  echoed  along  the  dark  galleries,  and 
at  all  hours  a  hail  of  rock  fragments  might  be  heard  rattling  on  the  floor 
of  a  level,  and  massive  lumps  of  ore  falling  heavily  on  the  slanting  pile 
at  the  foot  of  the  breast.  Half-naked  men  could  be  seen  rushing  back 
through  the  hanging  smoke  to  the  stopes  to  examine  the  result  of  the 
blast  and  to  shovel  the  fallen  mass  into  cars  or  wheelbarrows.  While 
some  were  shoveling  ore  and  pushing  cars,  others,  standing  on  the  slip- 
pery piles,  were  guiding  the  power-drills  which  churned  holes  in  the  ore 
with  incessant  thumps,  or  cleaving  the  softer  sulphurets  with  steel  picks 
swung  lightly  by  muscular  arms. 

Urged  on  by  Fair,  Mackey,  and  subordinate  overseers,  the  working 
force  of  miners  surpassed  all  previous  records  in  sending  out  ore.  On 
the  19th  of  March,  1875,  461  tons  of  ore  were  hoisted  through  the  Con- 
solidated Virginia  Mine  shaft  alone,^  which  was  then  accounted  a  notable 
exhibit;  but  in  March  of  the  following  year  908  tons  were  taken  out  dur- 
ing a  single  day  through  the  same  shaft  ;^  and  on  November  26,  1877, 
1,034  tons  were  quarried  and  sent  to  the  surface.^  This  was  to  be 
expected,  for  Roman  gladiators  were  scarcely  better  fitted  for  their  con- 
tests in  the  arena  than  these  Comstock  miners  for  their  labors  in  the 
heart  of  the  bonanza.  All  were  picked  men,  strong,young,  and  vigorous, 
fed  on  the  choicest  food  which  the  Pacific  coast  affords,  and  paid  the 
highest  wages  earned  by  any  miners  in  the  world.  Years  of  active  train- 
ing had  accustomed  them  to  every  detail  of  their  work,  and  they  executed 
all  orders  with  the  promptness  and  certainty  of  a  veteran  regiment  in 
drill.  As  they  stood  in  lines  at  the  shaft-mouth,  holding  tin  lunch- 
pails  or  lanterns,  and  waiting  their  turn  to  descend  in  the  cages,  there 

'  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  324.  =  Territorial  Enterprise,  March  15, 1876. 

3  Territorial  Enterprise,  November  28, 1877. 


THE  GEEAT  BONANZA,  313 

was  little,  it  is  true,  to  remind  one  of  martial  files:  sturdy  figures  all,  but 
many  slouching  and  ungainly;  straggling  lines,  except  when  the  cage  was 
at  the  surface,  then  closely  joined,  with  bodies  pressing  against  one 
another;  no  uniform  dress,  though  commonly  rough  circular  jackets  or 
ragged  coats  stained  and  smeared  with  clay,  loose  woolen  shirts,  blue  duck 
overalls  wrinkled  and  dirty,  heavy,  shapeless  brogans,  and  coarse  felt 
hats,  spotted,  and  gaping  with  rents  through  which  wisps  of  stiff  hair 
often  protruded.  Beneath  these  disfigurements  the  true  proportions  of 
the  stalwart  shapes  were  hidden,  though  the  broad -jointed,  sinewy  hands 
which  grasped  the  pails,  and  the  short  bare  necks  supporting  the  heads 
firmly,  were  unmistakable  evidences  of  their  manly  vigor.  When  a  cage 
reached  the  surface  the  waiting  men  took  their  places  silently  on  the  iron 
gratings  which  divided  its  interior  into  compartments  or  "decks."  Some 
gripped  a  round  bar  above  their  heads  to  secure  their  foot-hold,  but  most 
were  content  to  cling  to  the  close-packed  bodies  of  their  companions.  On 
the  warning  stroke  of  a  bell  the  laden  cage  dropped  swiftly  down  the  dark 
shaft,  passing  station  after  station  with  their  flickering  lights  and  busy 
sounds,  until  the  appointed  stopping-place  was  reached.  Then  they  passed 
out  from  the  station  through  connecting  galleries  to  their  posts  of  work. 
In  the  hot  levels  all  clothes  were  laid  aside  except  a  simple  waist-cloth, 
and  shoes  which  protected  the  feet  from  the  scorching  rocks.  Thus 
stripped  to  the  skin  the  slouching  forms  seen  above  were  scarcely  recog- 
nizable. Balanced  alertly  on  wet,  crumbling  heaps  of  ore,  with  muscles 
swelling  like  flesh  waves  at  every  swing  of  the  well-balanced  picks,  they 
became  models  for  a  sculptor.  Their  hot  blood  glowed  beneath  a  skin 
whitened  by  a  life  in  dark  rock-chambers  often  dripping  with  water  and 
reeking  with  vapor.  Ridges  of  sweat  stood  on  their  broad  backs  or  slid 
over  their  slippery  flesh  to  the  cloth  rims  about  their  waists.  The  variety 
of  their  motions  had  made  them  a  ti'oop  of  athletes.  Swinging  picks, 
hammering  drills,  shoveling  ore,  pushing  loaded  cars,  mounting  ladders 
from  crib  to  crib,  carrying  heavy  timbers  and  raising  them  to  place — these 
and  other  duties  developed  their  muscles  from  head  to  foot  as  in  an 
underground  gymnasium.  As  one  looked  upon  this  swarm  of  human 
ants,  stoping  out  and  sending  up  ore  from  a  bonanza  whose  riches  were 


314  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

incalculable,  while  the  vault  of  the  great  mine  echoed  with  busy  sounds 
and  sparkled  with  moving  lights,  it  is  scarcely  surprising  that  the  eyes 
were  dazzled  by  the  vision  of  the  treasure-chamber  and  the  brain  heated 
by  enkindled  fancies. 

The  mining  editor  of  the  Territorial  Enterprise,  one  of  the  most 
experienced  observers  on  the  lode,  wrote,  in  1875,  that  there  was  not  the 
slightest  doubt  that  the  bonanza  would  yield  |34,000,000  a  year  for  ten 
years  at  least.^  The  superintendent  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mine 
reported  at  the  close  of  the  year  1875  that  the  hoisting  capacity  of  the 
mine  would  shortly  be  increased  to  2,000  tons  per  day,  by  connection  with 
a  new  combination  shaft  (Consolidated  Virginia  and  California  shaft), 
and  that  there  was  a  sufficient  supply  of  ore  in  sight  to  last  for  many 
years.^  The  Director  of  the  United  States  Mint  made  a  careful  inspection 
of  the  ore-body,  in  company  with  Prof.  Robert  E.  Rogers,  in  the  summer 
of  1875,  and  fully  indorsed  the  latter's  estimate,  "that  with  proper  allow- 
ances the  ore-body  (in  sight)  equals  an  amount  which,  taken  at  the  actual 
assays,  would  give  as  the  ultimate  yield  of  the  two  mines  $300,000,000."* 
Others  were  even  less  guarded  in  their  statements.  Five  or  six  hundred  mil- 
lions was  a  common  estimate  of  the  probable  yield,  and  Mr.  Philip  Deide- 
sheimer,  a  miner  of  20  years'  experience,  reported,  after  a  close  personal 
survey,  that  the  bonanza,  in  his  opinion,  would  produce  $1,500,000,000. 
It  is  true  that  this  great  body  of  ore  was  not  within  the  limits  of  one  mine 
alone,  but  extended  north  beyond  the  boundary-line  of  the  Consolidated 
Virginia  Mining  Company  into  the  section  held  by  the  original  California 
Mining  Company.  To  facilitate  the  work  of  exploration  an  arrangement 
was  made  in  1873  by  which  the  entire  section  of  1,310  feet,  lying  between 
the  Best  &  Belcher  and  Ophir  mines,  was  divided  into  two  portions;  the 
southerly  one,  710  feet  in  length,  being  held  by  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
Mining  Company,  and  the  northern  portion  of  600  feet  being  assigned  to 
the  re-incorporated  California  Mining  Company.  To  compensate  the  stock- 
holders of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company  for  this  cession  of 


>  Tte  Big  Bonanza,  p.  488. 

-  Superintendent's  Report,  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  December  31,  1875. 
'  Report  of  R.  E.  Rogers,  November  15,  1875,  contained  in  Report  of  the  Director  of  the  Mint,  1875 ; 
pp.  19,20,83. 


THE  GEEAT  BONANZA.  315 

property  seven-twelfths  of  one  share  of  California  Mining  Company  stock 
was  paid  as  a  stock  dividend  to  each  share  of  Consolidated  Virginia/ 
The  stock  of  each  company  was  divided  into  108,000  shares,  whose  par 
value  was  $100. 

It  was  not  surprising  that  the  stock  valuation  of  these  two  mines 
rose  beyond  precedent.  The  stock  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mine, 
which  was  offered  at  one  dollar  per  share  in  July,  1870,^  and  even  in  June 
1872,^  could  be  purchased  for  $15  per  share,  gradually  rose,  though  with 
marked  fluctuations,  from  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  the  first  ore-body, 
in  March,  1873,*  until  November,  1874,=  when  it  was  sold  at  from  $115  to 
$176  per  share.  The  following  month  was  one  of  extraordinary  excite- 
ment in  the  stock  exchanges.  The  price  of  the  shares  bounded  in  a  few 
days  to  $610,  and  even  this  point  was  passed  during  the  first  month  of 
the  new  year,  1875,  when  shares  were  sold  at  $700,"  and  the  market  value 
of  the  mine  was,  therefore,  $75,600,000.  The  fluctuation  in  the  quoted 
value  of  the  California  Mine  was  even  more  marked.  In  September,  1874, 
its  shares  were  selling  as  low  as  $37,  but  their  value  rose  suddenly,  in 
December,  1874,  to  $520,  and  reached  $780  in  the  following  month,  thus 
placing  a  valuation  of  $84,240,000  on  the  mine. 

In  view  of  the  apparent  developments  and  the  reports  of  expert 
examiners,  even  these  extraordinary  quotations  seemed  justified.  For 
some  months,  at  least,  these  high  prices  might  have  been  sustained  if  the 
market  value  of  other  mines  on  the  lode  had  not  been  blown  up  unjusti- 
fiably by  the  speculative  mania,  which  was  fanned  to  flame  by  true  reports 
and  wild  imaginings.  At  a  liberal  estimate  the  actual  capital  available  for 
mining  speculation  did  not  exceed  $20,000,000,  yet  shares,  whose  aggre- 
gate value  exceeded  $50,000,000,  were  sold  in  one  San  Francisco  mining 
stock  exchange  during  the  month  of  December,  1874,'  and  the  market 
value  of  listed  stocks  alone,  at  the  close  of  this  year,  amounted  to  several 
hundred  million  dollars.     Even  if  the  mines  had  been  actually  worth  the 

'  Aumial  Eepoi't  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1877,  p.  5. 
2  Daily  Stock  Report,  December  22,  1879;  Table  of  Rates  for  1870. 

^Ibid.,  1872.  *Ibid.,  1873.  '■Ibid.,  1874.  ^Ibid.,  1875. 

'San  Francisco  Stock  Exchange  sales  aggregated  |50,682,145;  Commercial  Herald  and  Market  Review, 
January  14,  1875. 


316  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

price  demanded,  it  would  have  been  impossible  to  maintain  such  a  ratio 
between  the  amount  of  available  capital  and  the  stock  valuation;  but 
many  of  the  mines  were  not  worth  a  dollar  intrinsically,  and  all  were 
overvalued.  This  was  recognized  as  soon  as  the  fever  abated  and  men 
began  to  exercise  ordinary  judgment  in  their  purchases.  The  natural 
decline  was  hastened  by  reports  denying  the  extent  and  value  of  the  new 
Comstock  bonanza.  The  statements  were  unofficial  and  obviously  parti- 
san, but  when  buyers  are  becoming  cautious  and  timorous,  the  most  idle 
rumor  may  cause  a  panic.  So  in  the  present  instance  blind  confidence 
was  changed  first  to  doubt  and  then  to  alarm  within  the  same  week. 
Stocks  were  thrown  upon  the  market  at  any  sacrifice.  Shares  of  Consoli- 
dated Virginia  fell  from  $700  to  |497,  and  California  Mine  stock  from 
$780  to  $240,  or  to  less  than  one-third  of  its  former  value.  Ophir  stock 
dropped  from  $315  to  $100 ;  Savage,  from  $190  to  $85 ;  Gould  &  Curry, 
from  $72  to  $40;  and  a  corresponding  decline  of  from  50  per  cent,  to  250 
per  cent,  was  suffered  by  nearly  every  mine  on  the  exchange  list,  without 
any  apparent  reference  to  their  situation. 

The  great  body  of  speculators  saw  their  paper  fortunes  melt  into  thin 
air,  and  the  most  sanguine  visionaries  were  ruined.  Then,  as  it  was  nat- 
ural to  seek  other  scapegoats  than  personal  folly  and  blindness,  the  men 
who  had  furnished  extravagant  estimates  were  bitterly  reproached.  In  so 
far  as  willful  exaggerations  were  made  the  censure  was  merited.  Yet  the 
reproaches  were  often  palpably  unjust.  The  most  sanguine  speculator, 
Mr.  Philip  Deidesheimer,  staked  all  his  property  on  the  soundness  of 
his  judgment,  and  was  made  penniless  by  the  panic.^  Others  less  vision- 
ary made  calculations  which  seemed  to  them  accurate,  but  which  were 
vitiated  by  unknown  conditions.  To  measure  the  riches  of  a  mine  before 
the  ore  is  wholly  converted  to  bullion  is  a  most  difficult  task.  Mr.  Mackey, 
a  practical  miner  of  the  first  rank,  did  not  hesitate  to  declare  it  impossible, 
and  has  almost  uniformly  declined  to  hazard  an  estimate.^  The  presence 
of  concealed  masses  of  barren  rock  or  horses  in  the  midst  of  a  vein,  the 
unlooked-for  termination  of  ore-bodies,  the  irregularities  of  their  sur- 
face, the  impossibility  of  obtaining  samples  sufficient  to  afford  accurate 

'  Philip  Deidesheimer ;  Record  of  Bankruptcy  Sale.  '  John  W.  Mackey. 


THE  GEE  AT  BONANZA.  317 

conclusions  by  assay,  and  other  obstacles  which  need  not  be  cited,  all 
militate  against  the  certainty  of  the  calculation.  The  safest  plan  is 
assuredly  to  make  no  positive  assertions;  yet  the  public  demanded  esti- 
mates and  was  not  content  with  hypothetical  conclusions,  which  alone 
could  be  furnished.  They  required  impossibilities,  for  they  would  have 
found  fault  as  sharply  with  undervaluation  as  they  did  with  exaggeration. 
Unless,  by  a  fortunate  guess,  the  estimate  was  close  to  the  truth  as  later 
demonstrated,  the  calculator  might  rely  on  a  shower  of  abuse.  Still,  if 
he  recognized  this  fact  and  remained  silent  his  reticence  would  be  misrep- 
resented and  censured.  All  mine  officers  were  expected  to  tell  stock- 
holders and  the  public  generally  what  they  did  not  know  themselves. 
Changes  were  occurring  daily,  and  to  describe  them  clearly  and  fully  the 
daily  bulletin  must  contain  not  only  a  report  of  progress  but  a  complete 
resume  of  previous  reports.  If  the  bulletins  were  technical  summaries, 
many  people  could  not  comprehend  their  purport  readily ;  if  they  were 
suited  to  the  popular  comprehension,  they  were  called  too  vague  and  unspe- 
cific  by  speculators  who  were  experts  in  mining.  To  satisfy  everybody 
was  impossible,  and  the  mine  managers  had  no  uncurbed  desire  to  satisfy 
anybody  except  themselves.  Existing  custom  did  not  require  full,  clear,  and 
prompt  reports,  and  they  had  no  ambition  to  figure  as  reformers.  It  should 
be  noted,  however,  that  they  acted  with  exceptional  fairness  in  permitting  a 
thorough  and  general  inspection  of  the  bonanza  during  the  period  of  the 
greatest  excitement.  Every  applicant  was  not  granted  this  privilege,  or 
the  work  of  mining  would  have  been  seriously  impeded;  but  it  is  not 
known  that  admittance  to  the  mine  was  ever  refused  to  men  of  competence 
and  character  who  had  occasion  to  make  the  request  as  a  favor  or  a  right.^ 
Visitors,  who  were  daily  in  the  mine,  were,  of  course,  permitted  to  draw 
their  own  conclusions  and  to  express  them  as  they  saw  fit.  If  the  general 
opinion  was  incorrect  it  was  not  from  lack  of  opportunity  to  form  and 
modify  a  judgment.  It  is  probable  that  no  official  reports  could  have 
been  made  which  would  have  prevented  the  undue  inflation  of  stocks. 
The  will  or  whim  of  daring  and  wealthy  speculators  had  power  to  affect 
the  market  prices  far  more  than  the  best-attested  valuation  of  the  stocks 


'  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  473. 


318  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

in  question.  To  men  looking  for  satisfactory  investments  sucii  valuations 
are  essential,  and  the  prices  paid  for  mine  shares  will  be  based  on  such 
confirmed  statements.  To  stock  speculators  accurate  valuations  are  gener- 
ally objectionable,  as  they  tend  to  prevent  stock-deals,  which  are  their 
harvest.  Now  it  was  unfortunately  true  that,  since  the  San  Francisco 
Stock  Exchange  became  one  of  the  most  flourishing  institutions  of  that 
city,  men  began  to  buy  mining  stocks,  as  a  rule,  for  speculative  purposes, 
and  not  as  an  investment.  A  few  prominent  capitalists  purchased  the 
control  of  productive  mines  for  the  sake  of  dividends  and  the  profits  of 
milling  ore,  but  the  great  body  of  holders  bought  their  shares  to  sell  at 
an  advanced  price.  This  gambling  is  as  legitimate  as  any,  and  such 
stockholders  have  the  same  rights  as  those  who  hold  stocks  as  a  simple 
investment  in  productive  property.  No  law  which  secures  the  rights  of 
stockholders  can  question  their  intentions  or  discriminate  between  invest- 
ors and  gamblers.  Legally,  both  classes  stand  on  the  same  footing;  practi- 
cally, the  rights  of  investors  will  be  protected  when  those  of  gamblers 
are  disregarded.  This  is  simply  because  investors  assert  and  maintain 
their  rights  effectively,  while  gamblers  are  too  indifferent  and  reckless  to 
protect  themselves  from  imposition.  Apparently  they  have  been  content 
to  suffer  mismanagement,  unjust  discrimination,  and  needless  loss  in  the 
conduct  of  their  property,  because  these  were  the  natural  excrescences  of 
the  system  which  alone  could  make  preposterous  stock-deals  possible. 
When  such  men  blame  unfaithful  stewards  who  fail  to  make  full  reports 
of  the  increase  of  talents  intrusted  to  their  keeping,  their  blindness  or 
hypocrisy  is  evident.  If  false,  misleading,  or  insufficient  reports  from 
official  sources  were  forwarded  from  the  Comstock  Mines  it  was  because 
such  reports  were  more  acceptable  on  the  exchanges  than  plainly  stated 
truths.  Falsehood  and  ignorance  offer  a  wider  field  for  speculation  than 
knowledge  grants.  The  mining-stock  boards  of  San  Francisco  had  become 
gambling  establishments  of  a  low  order.  Suspicion  was  all-pervading  and 
truth  was  hardly  looked  for,  even  in  official  bulletins  from  the  Comstock 
district.  The  knowledge  that  the  control  of  the  leading  mines  had  been 
suffered  to  pass  into  the  hands  of  cliques,  whose  interests  were  presum- 
ably at  variance,  caused  every  statement  to  be  regarded  as  partisan  and 


THE  GREAT  BONAJSTZA. 


319 


prejudiced.  The  bulls  pulled  one  way,  the  bears  another.  The  most 
certain  method  of  deceiving  was  to  tell  the  truth,  for  the  exact  opposite 
would  then  be  commonly  believed. 

This  was  a  miserable  condition  of  things,  but  difficult  to  remedy. 
Speculation  based  on  the  probable  productiveness  of  mines  is  one  of 
the  most  useful  forms  of  gambling;  but  speculation  based  on  stock-deals 
is  as  unproductive  as  any  banking  game,  and  infinitely  more  destruc- 
tive to  the  honor,  humanity,  and  ordinary  morality  of  a  people.  It  saps 
insidously  all  distinctions  of  right  and  wrong,  and  success  in  money-getting 
soon  becomes  the  only  gauge  of  merit.  So  far  as  the  Comstock  Mines  have 
furnished  opportunities  for  stock-deals  their  discovery  and  development 
have  been  a  curse  to  the  Pacific  coast,  which  all  candid  observers  have 
recognized.  The  lode  which  was  a  boon  to  the  thousands  who  found  in 
it  opportunity  for  persistent  and  useful  work  was  also  a  bane  to  the  thou- 
sands who  converted  it  into  an  instrument  for  trickery  and  passionate 
gaming.  What  remedy  could  be  given  to  men  who  did  not  wish  to  be 
healed?  For  such  a  poison  a  strong  emetic  was  necessary,  and  this  was 
administered  frequently  before  the  present  partial  cure  was  effected. 

The  stock-market  panic  of  January,  1875,  had  no  appreciable  effect 
upon  the  development  of  the  new  bonanza;  shares  might  fluctuate  in 
value,  but  the  ore-product  continued  to  increase  steadily.  The  following 
tables  show  the  amount  of  ore  extracted  from  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
and  California  mines  during  the  years  1874-78,  inclusive,  and  the  value 
of  the  bullion  product :  ^ 


CONSOLIDATED  VIRGINIA  MINE. 


1873. 

1874. 
1875. 
1876. 

1877. 
1878. 


Amount 
Extracted. 


Toils. 


91, 168 
169, 307 
142,679 
144,400 
122, 831 


Yearly  Bullion 
Product. 


Dollars. 

645, 582. 17 

4,981,484.05 

16,717,394.76 

16, 657,  649.  47 

13,734,019.07 

7,996,753.11 


Total 60,732,882.63 


1  Official  Reports,  1874  to  1879. 


320 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE, 


CALIFORNIA  MINE. 


Yeab. 


1873. 

1874. 
1875. 
1876. 
1877. 

1878. 


Amount 
Extracted. 


5,183 

128,801 
217,43-2 
134,888 


Yeablt  Bullion 
Product. 


DoUan. 


•453,060.46 
13,400,841.40 
18,924,850.27 
10,949,078.93 


TOTAl 43,727,831.06 


*  Amount  received  from  sale  of  ore  January  18, 1876. 

By  this  extraordinary  output  managers  aimed  to  display,  doubtless,  the 
extent  and  richness  of  their  ore-body  in  order  to  maintain  at  a  high  fig- 
ure the  market  value  of  their  mine  shares.  Great  dividends,  whether 
judiciously  provided  or  not,  were  the  most  certain  aids  to  this  end,  and 
the  returns  to  stockholders  during  the  years  1874^-79  were  unprecedented. 
The  stockholders  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mine  received  $42,120,000 
from  May,  1874,  to  August,  1879,  and  the  California  Mine  paid  $31,050,000 
during  a  shorter  period.  May  15,  "J  876,  to  August  16,  1879.  The  hoisting 
machinery  was  so  efficient  and  the  extent  of  the  ore-body  so  enormous  that 
a  force  of  1,000  miners  could  be  employed  to  advantage  in  1877  by  the  two 
companies.  The  only  limit  to  the  production  was  the  capacity  of  the  several 
mills  engaged  in  crushing  and  amalgamating,  and  it  is  probable  that  this 
was  overtaxed  with  a  resultant  loss  to  the  stockholders,  which  might  have 
been  saved  by  more  economical  management.  The  general  demand  for 
large  and  frequent  dividends  fully  kept  pace,  however,  with  the  spirit  of 
the  mine  directors,  and  few  stockholders  had  the  right  to  complain  that 
their  protests  were  disregarded.  As  a  body  they  have  been  as  greedy  as 
young  ravens  and  fully  as  heedless,  clamoring  for  dividends  without 
questioning  closely  the  methods  of  production.  If,  then,  the  work  of 
reducing  the  ore  was  pressed  too  rapidly,  the  mine  managers  might  urge 
with  some  force  that  their  action  was  justified  by  the  accord  of  the  major- 
ity of  the  shareholders,  and  that  mines  are  necessarily  managed  to  satisfy 
owners  and  not  economic  theories.  For  the  haste  with  which  the  ore 
was  extracted  no  justification  is  needed.    The  crumbling  and  swelling 


THE  GREAT  BONANZA.  321 

masses  of  feldspar  and  clay  were  supported  and  braced  by  a  forest  of 
wooden  props,  which  required  constant  change,  refitting,  and  renewal, 
forced  out  of  place  by  shifting  ground  and  rotted  by  the  intense  heat  and 
moisture.  Rapid  extraction  of  ore  from  such  an  insecure  treasure-cham- 
ber was  an  economic  necessity,  and  the  work  was  winged  by  the  ever- 
present  fear  of  fire.  If,  by  a  moment  of  carelessness,  a  fire  should  be 
kindled  in  any  quarter  of  this  great  tinder-box  it  would  spread  irresistibly, 
and  even  if  a  fearful  loss  of  life  did  not  ensue,  a  probable  consequence, 
the  conversion  of  the  mine  into  a  flaming  pit  and  its  final  ruin  would  fol- 
low. The  dread  of  this  disaster  kept  the  principal  owner  of  the  great 
bonanza  sleepless  for  many  a  night  and  caused  him  to  explore  the  levels 
anxiously  when  others  with  less  at  stake  were  quietly  dreaming.^  No 
conflagration  blasted  his  hopes,  but  the  immunity  thus  granted  was  due 
in  all  likelihood  to  the  extraordinary  precautions  and  vigilance  of  the 
mine  managers,  who  did  not  relax  their  careful  oversight  until  the  treas- 
ure-chamber was  fairly  emptied.^ 

ijohn  W.  Mackey. 

^The  fires  wbich  broke  out  subsequently  iu  the  abandoned  levels  of  the  California  and  Consolidated  Vir- 
ginia mines  showed  the  value  of  these  precautions,  for,  though  discovered  shortly  after  their  outbreak,  they 
could  only  be  extinguished  by  bulkheading  all  connecting  drifts  and  allowing  the  wood  to  smolder  till  it  was 
wholly  consumed  or  ceased  to  burn  from  lack  of  oxygen.  Report  of  James  G.  Fair;  Territorial  Enterprise, 
May  4,  5,  6,  1881. 


21  H  c 


CHAPTEE    XVII. 

FEATS  OF  LABOR. 

The  discovery  and  development  of  this  bonanza  undoubtedly  gave  a 
new  lease  of  life  to  the  mining  industry  of  the  lode,  and  a  second  service 
of  scarcely  less  moment  was  meanwhile  rendered  by  the  same  agency. 
The  demand  for  pure  water  became  yearly  more  pressing.  The  two  water 
companies  endeavored  vainly  to  satisfy  it.  The  range  above  the  level  of 
the  lode  towns  had  been  nearly  drained,  and  only  a  few  rivulets  of  water 
still  trickled  from  the  mountain  sponge.  The  bilge-water,  so  to  speak,  of 
the  mine  levels  was  used  as  a  last  resource,  but  this  was  impure  and 
nauseating.  It  was  evident  that  an  extraordinary  effort  must  be  made  to 
secure  water  from  some  unfailing  source;  but  when  the  plan  was  broached 
of  conducting  water  from  a  sierran  creek  across  Washoe  Valley,  even  the 
boldest  speculators  were  startled.  To  bring  water  from  any  point  twenty 
miles  distant  entails  a  considerable  expense;  to  construct  a  flume-line 
fourteen  miles  in  length  was  practicable,  though  costly,  but  this  work  was 
only  the  prelude  to  the  real  task.  A  flume  four  miles  long  would  conduct 
the  water  from  Hobart's  Creek  to  a  spur  from  the  main  Sierras  at  a  point 
1,950  feet  above  the  level  of  Washoe  Valley.  From  this  elevation  it  was 
necessary  to  lead  the  water  across  the  valley  to  a  distributing  reservoir  in 
the  hills  of  the  Virginia  Range,  seven  miles  distant.  In  its  passage  the 
water  must  be  allowed  to  fall  nearly  2,000  feet  (1,961  feet)  to  the  bottom 
of  the  valley,  and  then  be  lifted  1,496  feet  to  the  summit  of  the  dividing 
ridge,  on  whose  eastern  slope  the  cities  of  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  were 
built.  How  to  accomplish  this  task  most  effectually  and  cheaply  was  an 
unsolved  problem  in  hydraulics.  To  pump  the  water  from  the  valley  to  a 
reservoir  in  the  Virginia  Range  was  probably  feasible,  but  the  first  cost  of 
the  requisite  machinery  and  the  operating  expenses  would  be  inadmissibly 
(322) 


FEATS  OF  LABOE.  323 

great,  and  another  device  must  be  employed.  The  best  engineering  talent 
on  the  Pacific  coast  was  interested  in  the  solution  of  this  difficulty,  and 
after  anxious  consideration  it  was  finally  proposed,  by  Mr.  Henry  Schussler, 
to  carry  the  water  across  in  an  iron  pipe,  constructed  in  the  form  of  a 
gigantic  letter  U,  though  necessarily  irregular  in  outline. 

Mr.  Schussler  was  the  engineer  under  whose  supervision  the  Spring 
Valley  Water  Works  of  San  Francisco  had  been  constructed,  and  his 
plan,  though  a  daring  conception,  was  theoretically  feasible.  At  the  low- 
est point  in  the  conduit-line,  as  determined  by  survey,  the  pipe  would  be 
subjected  to  a  perpendicular  pressure  of  1,720  feet  of  water,  equal  to  a 
pressure  of  800  pounds  upon  every  square  inch  of  its  inner  surface.  To 
join,  hermetically,  iron  pipe-sections  of  twelve  inches  interior  diameter 
which  could  bear  this  enormous  strain  without  leaking  or  bursting  was  a 
necessary  condition  of  success  in  the  plan.  The  total  length  of  the  pipe 
would  be  38,300  feet,  and  every  section  must  be  made  to  fit  a  predeter- 
mined place  in  the  line. 

When  the  scheme  of  the  new  line  of  water  works  was  submitted  to 
the  controllers  of  the  Comstock  Lode  its  practicability  was  gravely  doubted. 
"Everything  can  be  done  now-a-days,"  said  Mr.  Flood,  finally;  "the  only 
question  is— Will  itpay?"^  The  temper  of  the  bold  speculators  of  the 
Pacific  coast  has  never  been  more  concisely  shown  forth  than  in  this  half- 
jesting  speech.  Prospective  profit  has  been  the  main  touchstone  of  enter- 
prises", and  great  risks  have  not  deterred  them  from  expending  millions  in 
mine  lotteries  and  other  ventures  when  great  prizes  might  be  won.  The 
relative  promise  of  such  investments  will  be  differently  estimated,  of 
course,  and  one  speculator  will  undertake  what  another  equally  venture- 
some has  declined  to  attempt. 

A  second  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company  was  incorporated 
under  the  laws  of  California  in  1871,  which  purchased  all  the  rights  and 
franchises  of  the  first-named  company.  Mr.  Sharon  sold  the  stock  which 
he  held  in  the  new  company  before  the  plan  of  Schussler  was  executed, 
while  Mr.  Flood  bought  stock  in  the  same  company  and  urged  forward 
the  projected  works  to  completion.'    The  pipes  for  the  Washoe  Valley  line 

'  J.  B.  Overton,  Superintendent  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company.  ''J.  B.  Overton. 


324  HISTOEY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

was  ordered  in  1872,  and  the  first  section  laid  on  the  11th  of  June,  1873. 
The  sections  were  made  of  wrought-iron  from  tb^  to  i^  of  an  inch  in  thick- 
ness, and  were  26  feet  in  lengtli,  with  riveted  seams.  Over  every  joint 
in  the  pipe  was  placed  a  cast-iron  sleeve  or  band,  and  the  intervening 
space  packed  with  molten  lead,  and  before  the  sections  were  laid  in  place 
they  were  dipped  in  a  hot-bath  of  asphaltum  and  coal-tar.  Thirteen  deep 
gulches  lay  in  the  course  of  the  pipe,  which  crossed  them  by  as  many 
bends,  winding  about  also  in  lateral  curves  past  hills  and  jutting  rocks. 
These  irregularities  of  outline  made  the  work  exceptionally  difficult,  as 
the  pipe  was  laid  at  the  depth  of  four  feet  beneath  the  surface  throughout 
its  entire  length  of  38,300  feet;^  still  the  last  section  was  joined  on  the 
25th  of  July,  six  weeks  after  the  work  was  begun. 

When  the  pipe  had  been  carefully  tested  by  graduated  hydraulic  press- 
ure up  to  1,850  feet  of  perpendicular  water  column,  and  a  few  necessary 
repairs  had  been  made,  the  water  was  allowed  to  flow  through  to  the  flumes 
which  supplied  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill.  A  fire  kindled  at  the  inlet  of 
the  pipe,  August,  1873,  was  the  sign  of  the  entrance  of  the  flood.  At  vari- 
ous points  along  the  line  26  cocks  had  been  inserted  to  clear  the  pipe  of 
sediment  and  to  allow  the  escape  of  compressed  air.  So  when  the  current 
surged  through  the  pipe  the  cocks  on  the  crests  of  the  ridges  screamed 
like  steam-whistles  with  the  rush  of  the  escaping  air.  Thus  a  signal  of 
the  approach  of  the  water  passed  along  the  line,  and  the  expectant  people 
in  the  Washoe  cities  waited  impatiently  for  the  coming  of  the  promised 
stream.  After  an  anxious  interval  a  beacon-fire  was  seen  above  the  cities 
on  the  summit  of  the  dividing  ridge.  The  water  had  reached  the  end  of 
the  pipe  and  the  success  of  the  work  was  assured.  Then  a  mighty  shout 
went  up  from  the  assembled  people  in  the  city,  and  when  the  foaming 
stream  leaped  from  the  flume  upon  the  dry  and  rocky  bed  of  Bullion 
Ravine  it  was  hailed  as  a  deliverance  from  the  pains-  of  thirst  and  sick- 
ness. "The  crowd  were  as  wild  with  joy  as  the  Israelites  when  Moses 
smote  the  rock,"  declared  a  spectator  with  pardonable  extravagance.^ 
Men  rushed  forward  to  dip  their  hands  in  the  stream  and  fill  bottles  with 


'  Records  of  the  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company,  furnished  to  United  States  Census  Agents,  1880. 
2  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  2, 1873. 


FEATS  OF  LABOE.  325 

the  turbid  water.  It  was  unfit  to  drink  at  first,  as  a  quantity  of  loam, 
saw-dust,  and  bran  had  been  sent  down  in  order  to  fill  up  the  cracks  in 
the  flume,  but  soon  it  gushed  forth  in  a  clear,  pure  stream,  which  ran ' 
down  into  Gold  Gallon,  following  the  course  of  the  dry  creek.  Fireworks, 
bonfires,  and  cannon  discharges  saluted  its  appearance,  but  the  thronging 
company,  who  drank  eagerly  of  its  sweet  water  and  listened  in  delight  to 
the  sound  of  its  plashing  on  the  hot  rocks,  was  the  most  certain  assur- 
ance of  the  great  need  which  it  supphed. 

The  capacity  of  the  pipe  was  2,200,000  gallons  daily,  and  the  supply 
furnished  to  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  was  about  2,000,000  gallons  every 
24  hours;  ^  but  the  demand  increased  with  the  supply,  and  in  1875, 
although  the  quantity  used  by  the  towns  on  the  lode  was  many  times 
greater  than  that  obtained  two  years  before,  the  people  still  called  for 
more.     The  outbreak  of  a  great  fire  made  this  demand  imperative. 

On  the  morning  of  the  26th  of  October,  1875,  a  coal-oil  lamp  was 
upset  in  a  little  lodging-house  of  Virginia  Gity  and  flames  filled  the  house 
in  a  moment.  Fanned  by  the  wind,  they  leaped  from  roof  to  roof  until 
the  whole  quarter  was  on  fire,  and  the  imminent  peril  of  the  city  was 
seen.  Bells  rang  out  the  alarm  with  their  sharp,  startling  clangor,  and 
steam-whistles  blew  ear-piercing  blasts,  sounding  above  the  crackling  of 
the  flames,  the  shouts  of  the  firemen,  the  cries  of  escaping  women  and 
children,  and  the  rattling  of  engines  and  cart-wheels.  Lines  of  hose 
were  quickly  attached  to  the  hydrants,  and  engines  began  to  throw  water 
upon  the  fire;  but  the  firemen  might  as  well  have  attempted  to  quench  a 
volcano.  No  rain  had  fallen  for  several  weeks,  and  the  wooden  dwellings 
were  dry  as  tinder.  In  most  of  them  the  only  partition  between  adjoining 
rooms  was  a  sheet  of  cotton  cloth  stretched  tightly  from  floor  to  ceiling, 
and  covered  with  paper  almost  as  inflammable  as  the  mimic  walls  of 
stage  scenery.  Tongues  of  fire  licked  up  walls  and  ceiling  in  a  moment, 
and  the  inmates  had  barely  time  to  escape  alive,  without  thought  of  saving 
their  household  effects.  The  water  head  was  entirely  insufficient,  owing 
to  the  lack  of  suitable  pipes  and  the  failure  of  the  aldermen  to  contract 
for  a  more  adequate  water-supply;   consequently,  when  an  engine  hose 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  17,  1875. 


326  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

was  connected  with  the  service-pipe,  only  a  scanty  stream  would  be 
thrown  upon  the  fire;  still  the  flames  raged  with  such  fury  that  it  is 
doubtful  whether  any  possible  resource  would  have  checked  their  spread. 
The  brick  buildings  of  the  city  withstood  the  fire  at  first,  but  their  walls 
soon  crumbled  upon  the  surrounding  ruins;  the  church  spires  flashed  up 
suddenly  like  signal  fires  and  burned  like  torches  above  the  enveloping 
smoke,  while  strong  whirlwinds  swept  up  still  higher  fiery  pillars  of  eddy- 
ing sparks.  A  fierce  gale,  blowing  from  the  west,  urged  the  flames  down 
the  mountain  slopes  through  the  heart  of  the  city,  hurling  the  flimsy 
room-walls  in  blazing  sheets  through  the  air  far  in  advance  of  the  fire- 
line,  and  bombarding  the  house-tops  with  a  fiery  hail  of  cinders.  Roof 
after  roof  would  thus  blaze  up  behind  the  opposing  ranks  of  the  firemen, 
until  they  were  hemmed  in  between  two  walls  of  fire  and  forced  to  yield 
the  street,  and  re-form  farther  down  the  slope.  With  every  foot  thus 
gained  the  fury  of  the  fire  seemed  to  increase;  flame-spires  darted  from 
its  blazing  front  like  blasts  from  a  myriad  of  blow-pipes,  and  the  very  air 
seemed  on  fire  to  the  eyes  of  the  startled  people.  A  natural  panic  seized 
them,  and  with  one  accord  men,  women,  and  children  fled  before  the 
flames,  carrying  in  their  hands  the  things  they  most  prized,  and  only  halting 
when  far  out  beyond  the  city  on  the  open  face  of  the  mountain.  Then  they 
looked  back  and  saw  their  homes  transformed  into  a  reeking  furnace — "a 
sea  of  fire,"  said  one  observer,  "with  great  billows  tossing  to  and  fro."^  Over 
all  rested  a  heaving  mass  of  smoke,  rent  momently  by  whirling  pillars  of 
flame,  ascending  so  high  in  air  that  their  tops  were  visible  from  the  base 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mountains,  fifteen  miles  distant. 

Though  the  city  was  thus  deserted  as  doomed,  the  costly  mine-works 
were  not  yet  abandoned.  When  it  was  seen  that  the  business  quarter  could 
not  be  saved  redoubled  efforts  were  made  to  preserve  the  mine  and  mill  works 
on  the  line  of  the  lode,  and  every  one  of  these  buildings  in  the  path  of  the 
fire  was  the  centre  of  a  desperately  stubborn  contest.  The  miners  had 
formed  cordons  about  the  shafts  at  the  first  serious  alarm,  checking  the 
onset  of  the  flames  with  every  resource  at  command.  The  hill  basin  and 
canon  echoed  with  repeated  blasts  of  dynamite  leveling  outhouses  and 

>  The  Big  Bonanza,  pp.  557-.562. 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  327 

surrounding  dwellings;  but  the  fire  overleaped  the  circle  thus  cleared,  or 
flashed  along  the  ground  among  the  fallen  ruins.  Miners  and  firemen, 
contending  obstinately  with  water-buckets  and  wet  blankets,  beating  and 
trampling  out  the  flames  when  water  failed,  were  driven  back  foot  by  foot; 
and  at  length  the  greedy  fire  seized  upon  the  great  shaft-houses  and  bur- 
rowed among  the  surrounding  stacks  of  cord-wood  and  timber.  Almost 
instantly  masses  of  pitch-black  smoke  covered  the  burning  piles,  riven 
by  red  flashes  and  volleys  of  glowing  sparks,  and  then  a  mighty  outburst 
of  flames  roared  upward  with  an  intolerable  glare  and  heat.  At  the  Ophir 
Mine  works  alone  1,000  cords  of  wood  and  nearly  400,000  feet  of  mining 
timber  and  lumber  were  on  fire,^  and  a  bonfire  of  more  than  a  million 
feet  of  lumber  blazed  beside  the  works  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia 
Mining  Company.^  So  intense  was  the  heat  that  railroad  car-wheels  were 
smelted  in  the  open  air  near  the  Ophir  works,''  and  it  seemed  as  if  sala- 
manders alone  could  breathe  in  the  stifling  atmosphere;  yet,  after  the 
shaft-house  was  a  blazing  ruin,  when  it  was  discovered  that  the  flames 
were  creeping  down  the  shaft,  lines  of  men  stood  in  the  midst  of  the 
burning  mass,  passing  water-buckets  from  hand  to  hand  with  which  to 
quench  the  fire,  for  the  timbers  of  the  heavy  gallows-frame  had  fallen 
upon  the  earth-covered  platform  which  was  constructed  to  protect  the 
shaft-mouth  and  broken  through  into  the  shaft.  Until  midnight  this 
hand-to-hand  fight  was  maintained,  when  the  help  of  the  fire-engines  was 
at  length  obtained,  and  a  stream  of  water  was  poured  down  the  shaft  for 
thirty-six  hours  continuously.  By  this  unremitting  exertion  the  down- 
ward progress  of  the  fire  was  stopped  at  a  point  400  feet  from  the  surface. 
The  mine  was  saved,  but  the  surface  works,  covering  an  area  of  39,522 
square  feet,  and  completely  supplied  with  machinery,  were  burned  to  the 
ground.*  The  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company's  hoisting-works 
and  mill  and  the  California  Company's  mill  were  likewise  destroyed,  with 
a  resultant  loss  to  these  companies  of  $1,311,000.^  Fortunately,  the 
buildings  of  their  new  joint  shaft,  the  most  costly  on  the  lode,  were  saved 

'Annual  Report,  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1875,  p.  11.  ^  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  563. 

'Annual  Report,  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1S75;  Superintendent's  Report,  p.  11. 
*  Annual  Report,  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1875,  pp.  11,  12. 
'  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  563. 


328  HISTORY  OF  THE  GOMSTOCK  LODE. 

by  the  strenuous  exertions  of  the  working  miners  and  the  well-directed 
use  of  giant-powder  in  blowing  up  the  neighboring  houses.  With  this 
exception  the  fire  swept  unbaffled  across  the  city ;  the  business  quarter  was 
utterly  ruined ;  2,000  buildings  were  burned  to  the  ground;  property  to 
the  value  of  $10,000,000  was  destroyed,  and  hundreds  of  persons  were  made 
homeless  and  destitute.^ 

Such  a  calamity  is  most  deplorable,  yet  not  without  a  bright  side. 
The  sympathy  shown  to  the  people  of  the  city  and  the  marvellous  energy 
with  which  the  ruin  was  repaired  are  memorable.  The  towns  of  Nevada 
and  California  contributed  as  with  one  impulse  to  relieve  the  distress  of 
the  sufferers,  and  as  soon  as  supplies  could  be  forwarded  none  were 
allowed  to  want  for  food,  shelter,  and  clothing;  nor  was  this  heartfelt  lib- 
erality undeserved,  for  none  were  willing  to  impose  upon  the  charity  of 
their  neighbors.  The  working-classes  of  Virginia  City  have  an  honorable 
pride  which  detests  the  condition  of  a  sluggard  or  a  pauper;  all  were 
anxious  to  gain  their  living  by  work,  and  there  was  work  for  all.  The 
business  men  of  the  city  did  not  lose  heart,  and  the  rebuilding  of  the 
town  was  determined  upon  while  the  ruins  were  still  blazing.  On  the 
morning  after  the  fire  the  smoking  timbers  and  debris  were  cooled  by 
buckets  of  water  and  streams  from  the  hydrants  in  hundreds  of  places, 
and  the  lumber  which  came  in  by  rail  was  placed  on  the  reeking  ground. 
The  work  of  building  then  went  on  continuously  all  day  long  and  far  into 
the  night,  in  the  midst  of  storms  as  well  as  in  fair  weather.  A  tornado 
blew  down  a  large  part  of  the  newly-erected  houses  during  the  week  after 
the  fire,  but  the  wrecks  were  cleared  away  as  soon  as  the  storm  ceased 
and  building  was  resumed.  Sixty  days  after  the  fire  the  principal  streets 
running  through  the  burnt  district  were  lined  with  business  houses,  the 
majority  of  which  were  of  a  better  class  than  those  destroyed,  and  habit- 
able dwellings  covered  the  intervening  blocks.^ 

The  achievement  of  the  mining  companies  whose  works  were  burned 
was  even  more  extraordinary.  The  official  report  of  Samuel  T.  Curtis, 
Superintendent  of  the  Ophir  Mining  Company,  is  characteristic:  "On  the 
day  after  the  fire  competent  men  were  dispatched  to  the  lumber-yards  of 


'  The  Big  BonaDza,  p.  557.  *  The  Big  Bonanza,  pp.  562, 563. 


FEATS  OF  LABOE.  329 

Carson  and  Dutch  Flat,  Cal.,  to  procure  and  ship  timbers;  machinery  was 
telegraphed  for;  the  new  double-reel  hoisting-engine  and  cables  just  com- 
pleted for  the  combination  shaft  of  the  Ghollar-Potosi,  Hale  &  Norcross, 
and  Savage  secured ;  and,  through  the  heaviest  storms  which  Virginia 
has  seen  for  years,  the  old  engine  foundations  were  torn  out  and  new  ones 
to  suit  the  combination-shaft  engine  constructed;  work  was  prosecuted 
without  cessation;  supplies  hauled  a  considerable  distance  on  account  of 
the  destruction  of  the  railroad  tunnel  and  bridges;  the  works  rebuilt  and 
work  through  shaft  resumed  November  25th,  being  inside  of  30  days  from 
time  of  destruction.  While  the  reconstruction  of  works  was  going  on  a 
donkey-engine,  furnished  through  the  kindness  of  the  Phil.  Sheridan 
Mining  Company,  was  put  in  place,  with  which  we  were  enabled  to  retim- 
ber  shaft  where  it  had  been  burned  to  a  depth  of  400  feet  from  surface, 
besides  hoisting  considerable  water  entering  on  the  700-foot  level  of  mine. 
The  buildings  rebuilt  have  been  made  much  larger  and  more  complete  and 
convenient  than  formerly.^ "  On  the  15th  of  December  the  inventory  of  the 
buildings  and  machinery  of  the  Ophir  Mine  works  showed  an  aggregate 
value  of  1317,811.57,  a  simple  but  expressive  record.^ 

Work  was  pressed  with  equal  energy  by  the  managers  of  the  Con- 
solidated Virginia  Mining  Company,  and  within  50  days  the  hoisting-works 
and  ore-house  were  rebuilt  on  an  enlarged  scale,  with  many  improvements, 
and  ore  was  raised  at  the  rate  of  600  tons  daily  from  the  shaft.^  The 
buildings  and  machinery  at  the  mine-shaft  were  valued  at  |300,000  on 
the  31st  of  December,  1875." 

Professional  pride  and  the  desire  to  bolster  up  a  sinking  stock  market 
were  probably  the  main  incentives  to  this  unprecedented  feat  in  mining 
industry.  These  motives  may  be  called  selfish,  no  doubt,  but  the  enterprise, 
energy,  and  skill  shown  in  the  work  merit  recognition  nevertheless.  Only 
invincible  prejudice  will  see  nothing  to  praise  in  the  conduct  of  mining 
enterprises  by  the  men  who  have  controlled  in  succession  most  of  the  pro- 
ductive and  barren  mines  of  the  Comstock  Lode,  for  faith,  industry,  skill, 

'  Superintendent's  Eeport,  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1875;  Annual  Report,  p.  12. 
'  Annual  Eeport,  Ophir  Mining  Company,  1875,  p.  21. 

^  Annual  Report,  ConBolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  December  31,  1875,  p.  10, 
*IMd.,  p.  13. 


330  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

perseverance,  and  zeal  are  exhibited  in  the  development  of  the  lode  by  works 
which  form  an  unimpeachable  record.  It  is  true  that  the  bonanza  mine 
managers  have  received,  in  various  ways,  the  lion's  share  of  the  profits  from 
the  ore  extracted;  they  have  held  the  greater  portion  of  the  shares  of  the 
bonanza  mines,  and  have  made  large  gams  as  mill-owners.  If  any  of 
their  acts  in  acquiring  fortune  have  been  illegal,  measures  can  be  taken 
by  those  aggrieved  to  obtain  restitution;  and  a  decision  in  a  recent  suit 
would  indicate  that  their  official  acts  cannot  always  be  justified.  The 
truth  of  the  main  charge  against  them  is  admitted — that,  while  serving  as 
trustees  of  mining  companies,  they  made  contracts  for  crushing  the  ore 
of  these  companies  with  themselves  as  mill-owners.^  If  this  is  illegal 
they  have  broken  the  law.  In  so  doing,  however,  they  have  followed 
notorious  precedents,  and  in  so  far  can  plead  custom,  if  not  justification. 
They  maintain,  also,  that  the  ore  was  reduced  at  the  regular  market  rates 
for  milling,  and  more  efficiently  than  it  could  be  milled  otherwise;  for 
they  did  not  judge  it  expedient  to  erect  corporation  mills,  but  awarded  the 
contracts  to  the  most  capable  agents,  who,  by  a  fortunate  coincidence, 
were  the  grantors  themselves.  This  is  scarcely  a  modest  claim,  but  it 
may,  nevertheless,  be  a  true  one;  for  their  competence  to  superintend 
mills  as  well  as  mines  is  undeniable.  The  percentage  of  the  assay  value 
of  the  ore  returned  to  the  mine  stockholders  by  their  mills  was  certainly 
not  below  the  average,  and  the  ratio  of  profits  to  working  expenses  attested 
their  skillful  management  of  the  mines.  This  much  may  fairly  be  said 
in  palliation  of  their  action;  but  this  is  not  a  justification  of  their  course. 
Trustees  of  a  mining  company  who  considered  the  company's  interest 
before  their  own  would  have  erected  corporation  mills,  or  awarded  con- 
tracts for  milling  to  the  lowest  responsible  bidders  who  would  guarantee 
the  best  returns.  In  this  way  the  profits  gained  by  the  mill-men  might 
have  been  saved  to  the  stockholders,  or  the  market  rates  reduced  by  com- 
petition, to  their  evident  advantage;  but  this  would  be  a  nearer  approach 
to  an  ideal  management  than  has  been  attempted  at  the  Washoe  mines. 
No  measures  have  been  adopted  to  secure  unselfish  and  unbiased  trustees, 
and  it  is  therefore  impossible  to  contrast  the  two  theories  of  management 

'Testimony  of  James  C.  Flood,  President  of  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company;    Stenographio 
Report  in  suit  of  George  C.  Kinney  et  a!,  vs.  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  p.  190. 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  331 

by  practical  results.  Whether  such  officials  exist,  except  in  Utopia,  is 
gravely  questioned  in  Nevada,  and  this  doubt  may  be  justified;  but  it 
is  certain  that  no  well-directed  attempt  to  discover  them  has  yet  been 
made.  Owing  to  causes  before  noted  the  rights  of  stockholders  have 
never  been  fully  defined,  asserted,  and  maintained  in  the  Comstock  Lode 
district.  The  controllers  of  the  bonanza  mines  have  shown  neither  more 
nor  less  than  the  ordinary  measure  of  regard  exhibited  by  directors  for 
the  interests  of  stockholders,  and  if  they  have  not  been  reformers  or 
champions  neither  have  they  been  infringers  upon  any  conceded  rights. 
The  ore  was  extracted  and  reduced  swiftly  and  skillfully,  and  unexampled 
dividends  were  paid  to  the  mine  stockholders  until  the  ore  deposits  were 
nearly  exhausted;  and  if  the  managers  had  the  lion's  share  of  the  profits, 
they  had  also  the  lion's  share  of  the  risk  and  labor.  These  facts  should 
be  borne  in  mind  in  any  fair  criticism  or  censure  of  their  conduct  as 
trustees. 

Their  services  in  pressing  the  development  of  the  mines  and  in  main- 
taining the  prosperity  of  the  towns  on  the  lode  cannot  be  questioned. 
The  swift  rebuilding  of  the  burned  city  and  the  renewal  of  work  in  the 
mines  was  due  in  large  measure  to  their  energy  and  faith ;  nor  did  they 
rest  content  with  this  service.  To  provide  against  the  recurrence  of  such 
a  calamity  was  their  next  thought.  Although  the  full  supply  of  water  avail- 
able for  fire-service  had  not  been  used  at  the  outbreak  of  the  fire,  owing  to 
the  lack  of  suitable  pipes  and  the  disagreement  between  the  city  govern- 
ment and  the  water  company,  yet  it  was  evident  that  the  supply  so  far 
obtained  was  inadequate.  Hobart  Creek,  in  the  Spring  months,  could  fur- 
nish from  25,000,000  to  40,000,000  of  gallons  daily;  but  it  was  not  possible 
to  store  up  the  overflow,  and  during  the  Summer  the  supply  steadily 
diminished  until,  at  the  end  of  October,  only  700,000  gallons  could  be 
drawn  daily  from  the  creek.  The  cost  of  the  water-works  had  been 
1725,000,  but  twice  this  sum  must  be  expended  upon  the  proposed  exten- 
sion; a  tunnel  4,000  feet  in  length  must  be  cut  through  a  dividing  ridge 
in  order  to  bring  water  from  a  lake  in  the  Sierra  Nevada  Range  for  the  use 
of  the  mine ;  a  second  line  of  pipe  must  he  laid  across  Washoe  Valley, 
and  an  expensive  dam  constructed  in  the  basin  of  the  lake  to  increase  its 


333  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

area  and  depth;  yet  the  necessary  outlay  was  made  without  hesitation. 
A  dam  was  built  across  the  outlet  of  the  lake  (Marlette)  170  feet  long,  37 
feet  high,  and  88  feet  wide  at  the  base,  increasing  the  area  of  the  lake  to 
14  square  miles  and  its  average  depth  to  12  feet.  A  flume  26,400  feet  in 
length  conducted  the  water  of  the  lake  to  the  entrance  of  the  tunnel, 
which  was  cut  through  the  separating  ridge  a  distance  of  3,994  feet.^ 
From  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  a  second  flume  line,  34,320  feet  in  length, 
was  built  to  the  inlet  of  the  pipe  through  which  the  water  passed  across 
Washoe  Valley  to  the  Virginia  Range.  The  ground  for  the  bed  of  this  pipe 
had  been  broken  six  months  before  the  fire.  May  1, 1875,  and  it  was  quickly 
and  skillfully  laid  under  the  supervision  of  its  designer,  J.  B.  Overton, 
superintendent  of  the  water  company.  It  crossed  the  valley  near  the 
line  of  the  first  pipe,  constructed  in  1873,  which  it  resembled  in  general 
design,  though  differing  in  important  details.^  It  was  600  feet  shorter  and 
its  interior  diameter  was  2  inches  less.  The  sections  were  of  wrought- 
iron,  16  feet  in  length,  and  4  of  an  inch  in  thickness;  the  seams  were  lap- 
welded  and  the  joints  screwed  together,  the  cast-iron  sleeves  and  packing 
being  discarded.  From  the  outlet  of  both  pipes  the  water  passed  in  a 
flume  to  a  storage-reservoir  18,480  feet  distant,  from  whence  a  flume  line, 
34,320  feet  in  length,  conducted  it  to  the  point  of  distribution  in  Virginia 
City.  The  capacity  of  the  storage-reservoir  was  8,300,000  gallons,  and 
another  reservoir,  constructed  to  hold  3,400,000  gallons,  was  placed  on  the 
dividing  ridge  between  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill. 

To  protect  the  city  in  case  of  fire  pipe-lines,  aggregating  4  miles  in 
length,^  were  laid  through  its  streets,  and  hydrants  constructed  at  suitable 
points.  This  pipe  is  the  property  of  the  city,  which  also  owns  2^  miles  of 
smaller  supply-pipes.  The  length  of  the  pipe-lines  belonging  to  the  water 
company  which  run  through  the  streets  of  Virginia  City,  Gold  Hill,  and  Sil- 
ver City  is  14  miles,  and  through  this  system  of  pipes  and  flumes  4,200,000 
gallons  of  water  are  distributed  daily  through  the  towns  on  the  lode,  the 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  15,  1877 ;  Connection  between  two  headings  made  May  13,  1877 ;  Dimen- 
sions of  the  tunnel :  8  feet  high,  6i  feet  wide  at  floor-level,  5i  feet  wide  at  roof;  as  timbered,  7  feet  high,  6J 
feet  wide  at  floor  level ;  4i  feet  wide  at  roof. 

'J.  B.  Overton,  Superintendent  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company 

3  Interior  diameter  for  2f  miles,  10  inches ;  for  IJ  miles,  8  inches. 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  333 

mine-works  consuming  two-thirds  of  the  supply,  or  about  2,800,000  gallons 
every  24  hours.  The  water-rates  in  1880  were  20  cents  per  1,000  gallons 
to  the  mining  companies  and  |4  per  month  to  families  of  six  or  eight  per- 
sons. As  the  full  supply  which  can  be  furnished  is  taken  at  these  rates, 
the  income  of  the  company  is  evidently  large;  still,  its  charges  cannot  be 
.  deemed  exorbitant  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  cost  of  its  plant,  including 
flumes,  dam,  reservoirs,  pipes,  water-rights,  litigation,  &c.,  was  $2,200,000.^ 

Besides  supplying  water  to  the  mining  towns  a  considerable  amount  of 
ice,  ranging  from  3,000  to  4,000  tons  annually,  is  furnished  to  consumers 
by  the  water  company,  who  cut  it  on  their  reservoirs  in  the  Virginia  Range. 
To  meet  the  demand,  when  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company 
persisted  in  maintaining  a  high  rate  of  freight  charges  for  ice  transporta- 
tion from  Carson  Valley,  the  water  company  made  full  preparations  to 
manufacture  ice  artificially  to  the  amount  of  twenty  tons  daily;  but  a  com- 
promise with  the  railroad  company  made  the  investment  useless.  In  1880 
the  price  of  the  reservoir-ice  delivered  to  the  consumer  was  |20  per  ton. 

While  the  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company  were  piercing  the 
sierran  ridge  to  obtain  water,  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  were  persist- 
ently advancing  their  great  adit  in  order  to  rid  the  mines  of  its  presence. 
The  distance  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  in  the  foot-hills  of  the  Vir- 
ginia Range  to  the  Comstock  Lode  was  20,000  feet  ^  in  round  numbers,  or 
nearly  4  miles.  The  height  of  the  passage-way  was  at  first  10  feet,  and  its 
width  13  feet  6  inches,  though  the  actual  dimensions  of  the  excavation  were 
somewhat  greater,  as  it  was  necessary  to  timber  many  sections  comprising 
45.5  per  cent,  of  the  total  length,  20,489  feet,  as  finally  completed.^  After 
reaching  a  point  1,100  feet  from  the  mouth,  the  tunnel  was  driven  5  feet 
wide  by  6  feet  high*  in  the  clear .'^  It  was  planned  to  sink  four  ventilating 
and  working  shafts  at  intervals  of  from  4,000  to  5,000  feet  on  the  line  of  the 
tunnel,  so  that  the  work  of  excavation  might  be  carried  on  simultaneously 

'  J.  B.  Overton,  Superintendent  Virginia  and  Gold  Hill  Water  Company. 

^  Twenty  thousand  feet  on  the  north  side  of  tunnel,  and  19,987  feet  on  the  south  side ;  George  J.  Speoht, 
C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 

'George  J.  Speoht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company.  *Ibid. 

^Enlarged  during  the  months  February-September,  1876,  to  comply  with  the  specifications  of  the  tunnel 
franchise  (Act  of  Congress  approved  July  26,  1866)  calling  for  an  area  not  less  than  8  by  8  feet. 


334  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

at  a  number  of  headings.  As  soon  as  the  requisite  capital  was  obtained, 
through  Mr.  Sutro's  exertions,  as  related  in  a  former  chapter,  a  large  force 
of  miners  began  to  carry  out  the  design  as  rapidly  as  their  services  could 
be  utilized. 

In  estimating  the  practical  service  of  the  tunnel  to  the  mines  on  the  lode 
the  length  of  time  required  for  its  completion  was  a  most  important  con- 
sideration. In  the  contracts  with  the  mining  companies  the  Sutro  Tunnel 
Company  did  not  bind  itself  to  complete  the  work  within  any  specified  time, 
and  the  Sutro  Tunnel  act  of  1866  did  not  include  any  time  allowance  or 
limitation.  The  company  simply  covenanted  to  prosecute  the  work  contin- 
uously, except  from  unavoidable  accident,  and  to  expend  a  minimum  sum 
yearly  after  the  first  day  of  August,  1868;  but  it  was  generally  understood 
that  the  time  required  to  make  the  tunnel  serviceable  would  not  exceed  five 
years,'  and  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Commission,  in  1871,  when  only  one-tenth  of 
the  total  length  had  been  cut,  estimated  that  the  main  tunnel  could  be  com- 
pleted by  manual  labor  alone  in  three  and  one-fourth  years  after  the  work 
had  been  fairly  undertaken  in  accordance  with  the  original  plan.  If  this 
estimate  had  been  even  approximately  correct,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
practical  utility  of  the  tunnel  would  have  been  materially  increased ;  but  the 
estimate  was  vitiated  by  an  unforeseen  yet  very  probable  occurrence.  The 
calculation  was  based  on  the  plan  of  extending  the  tunnel  by  working  through 
the  four  shafts  on  its  line  as  well  as  at  its  face.  In  this  way  the  work  of 
excavation  could  have  been  carried  on  at  nine  distinct  stopes  or  headings 
east  of  the  lode  from  which  a  connecting  gallery  might  also  have  been 
cut.  The  sinking  of  these  shafts  was  duly  undertaken,  in  accordance 
with  the  terms  of  the  contract,  but  before  the  two  nearest  the  lode  had 
been  half  completed  such  floods  of  water  poured  into  the  workings  that 
their  further  extension  was  judged  to  be  a  practical  impossibility.  The 
other  two  were  cut  to  the  tunnel  level,  but  the  workmen  were  driven  by  a 
flood  from  the  extension  of  one  less  than  three  months  after  its  completion. 
Consequently  the  work  was  chiefly  carried  on  by  the  excavation  of  the 
main  tunnel  alone  and  its  progress  was  inevitably  slow. 

•Report  of  Committee  of  the  Mechanics  Institute  of  San  Francisco,  in  1867.  Estimate:  "Three  and 
one-half  years,  allowing  for  all  contingencies."  Estimate  of  E.  G.  Carlyle,  Chief  Engineer  in  employ  of  Sutro 
Tunnel  Company  :   "  Two  years  six  months  and  twenty-one  days." 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  335 

In  1873,  when  the  work  was  continuously  prosecuted  and  the  best 
result  of  hand-drilling  obtained,  the  advance  was  1,919  feet,^  at  which 
rate  more  than  seven  years  would  have  been  required  to  complete 
the  tunnel;  nor  is  it  probable  that  this  rate  could  have  been  maintained 
by  manual  labor,  owing  to  the  extraordinary  increase  of  heat  and  the 
necessarily  defective  ventilation.  Furthermore,  during  a  part  of  the 
year  1873  work  was  carried  on  by  headings  from  shaft  No.  1  as  well  as  at 
the  main  tunnel  face,  thereby  increasing  the  normal  rate  of  progress  650 
feet.^  In  view  of  these  facts  it  does  not  appear  probable  that  the  tunnel 
could  have  been  completed  before  1885,  if  hand-drilling  alone  had  been 
relied  upon;  yet  when  the  original  calculations  were  made  by  the  Sutro 
Tunnel  Company  machine-drilling  was  in  its  infancy  and  its  practical 
serviceability  not  yet  fairly  demonstrated.  The  drills  in  use  were  of  com- 
plicated construction  and  constantly  requiring  repairs.  The  Sommeiller 
drill,  at  the  Mont  Cenis  Tunnel,  could  rarely  bore  to  the  depth  of  a  foot 
without  refitting,  and  to  provide  sixteen  serviceable  machines  two  hundred 
were  kept  in  the  repair  shops.^  The  cost  of  their  use  was  computed  to 
be  two  and  a  half  times  the  cost  of  hand  labor,  which  offset  the  advantage 
of  an  increased  rate  of  progress.*  In  the  employment  of  the  Burleigh  drill, 
at  the  Hoosac  Tunnel,  better  results  were  attained,  but  the  average  endur- 
ance of  a  machine  without  repair  was  only  five  days,'^  and  even  as  late  as 
1869  the  number  of  drills  in  the  repair  shops  was  double  the  number  of 
those  in  use  at  the  west  heading  of  the  tunnel. 

If,  then,  the  length  of  time  requisite  to  complete  the  tunnel  by  manual 
labor  is  considered,  and  if  the  extraordinary  cost  of  this  service,  owing  to 
the  heat  and  foulness  of  the  atmosphere  at  the  face  of  the  heading,  is  duly 
estimated,  it  may  be  seriously  questioned  whether  work  in  the  tunnel 
would  have  been  prosecuted  at  the  present  day  except  for  a  fortunate 
coincidence.  This  was  the  opportune  improvement  of  the  power-drills, 
whose  use  in  the  tunnel  averted  the  failure  of  the  project,  though  the 
original  plan  was   abandoned.     On  the   25th  of  April,  1874,  the   first 

'  George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company.  ^  Ibid. 

^  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1869,  p.  514. 

<  Proceedings  of  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  of  Great  Britain,  vol.  XXUI,  p.  258,  vol.  XXXVI,  p.  1. 

'  Report  of  United  States  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  Mining,  1869,  p.  508. 


336  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Burleigh  drill  was  put  in  operation  at  the  face  of  the  heading/  and 
before  the  middle  of  August,  1874,  four  machines  were  at  work  constantly. 
Their  superior  efficiency,  as  compared  with  the  plodding  hand-drill, 
was  evident  at  once.  In  September,  1874,  the  advance  made  was  310 
feet,  nearly  three  times  the  distance  cut  during  the  previous  March  (130 
feet),  the  last  month  in  which  hand-drills  were  exclusively  used.  This 
rate  of  progress  was  steadily  maintained,  417  feet  being  cut  in  December, 
1874,  through  rock  of  favorable  character,  hornblende  andesite,  requiring 
only  partial  timbering,  which  may  be  fairly  contrasted  with  the  advance 
of  131  feet,  made  by  hand-drilling  in  September,  1873,  in  rock  of  similar 
character,  the  best  result  recorded.  Furthermore,  the  height  and  width 
of  the  heading-face  had  been  increased,  as  soon  as  machine-drills  came 
into  use,  to  9.5  feet  and  13  feet,  respectively,  outside  of  timbers,^  so  that 
the  actual  excavation  per  lineal  foot  of  advance  was  more  than  double 
what  it  had  been  during  1873.  During  the  years  1875  and  1876,  7,398 
feet  were  cut  by  the  aid  of  Burleigh  and  Ingersoll  drills  through  rock  of 
nearly  uniform  composition,  augite  andesite  (tinclinic  feldspar  and  augite) 
mainly,  showing  an  average  monthly  advance  of  308  feet  3  inches.^    Such 

'  Then  5,850  feet  from  the  mouth  of  tunnel ;  George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 
'  George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 

2  The  monthly  average  advance  of  the  main  tunnel  heading  of  the  Rothsohonberger  Stollen  (excavated 
from  the  mouth),  the  longest  adit  in  the  Freiburg  District,'  was  26  feet  6  inches,  when  hand  labor  and  black 
blasting-powder  were  used.^  A  few  months  before  its  completion  (opened  April  12,  1877)  power-drills  were 
used,  and  the  average  monthly  advance  was  increased  to  84  feet.  Its  face  area  is  3  square  metres,  or  96  square 
feet,'  oue-fifth  less  than  the  face  area  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  123J  square  feet,  as  cut  in  1875,  and  nearly  twice  the 
area  cut  in  1873  (7  by  8),  56  square  feet,  approximately.     Consequently  the  comparative  record  of  progress  is,  viz : 

Monthly  average  advance. 
By  hand  labor  (single  heading). 
Character  of  rock.  ^  Lin.  ft.  In. 

Sutro  Tunnel.    Augite  andesite  ;  hornblende  andesite  (1873) 105    9 

Eothschonberger  Stollen.     Gneiss 26     6 

By  power-drills. 
Character  of  rock.  Lin.  ft.    In. 

Sutro  Tunnel.     Augite  andesite ;   hornblende  andesite  (1875) 310       8 

Rothsohonberger  Stollen.     Gneiss 84       0 

Cubic  feet  of  rock  excavated  monthly  by  hand  labor : 

Sutro  Tunnel 5,922 

Rothsohonberger  Stollen 2,544 

Cubic  feet  of  rock  excavated  monthly  by  power-drills  : 

Sutro  Tunnel ". 38,  367i 

Rothschonberger  Stollen 8,064 

The  advance  in  linear  feet  is,  of  course,  a  better  measure  of  efficiency  than  the  quantity  of  rock  quarried, 
as  increased  area  of  face  permits  the  employment  of  additional  laborers  or  drills. 

*  Thirteen  thousand  nine  hundred  metres — 45,600  feet  in  round  numbers. 
sProf  R.  W,  Raymond,  Engineering  and  Mining  Jouroal,  November  3, 1877. 
^Engineering  and  Mining  Journal,  October  27, 1877. 


FEATS  OF  LABOE.  337 


IS- 


a  record  was  without  precedent  in  tlie  history  of  tunneling  in  mining  dis 
tricts.  The  favorable  character  of  the  rock  excavated  may,  in  a  measure, 
account  for  it;  but  due  credit  should  be  given  for  the  singular  energy 
with  which  the  work  was  pushed  and  the  skill  with  which  the  drills  were 

operated. 

Sutro's  Untiring  zeal  kindled  a  like  spirit  in  his  co-workers.     Chang- 
ing shifts  urged  the  drills  onward  without  ceasing;  skilled  timberers  fol- 
lowed up  the  attack  on  the  breast  and  covered  the  heads  of  the  assailants 
like  shield-bearers.     The  hot  rocks  blown  from  the  face  of  the  heading 
hardly  ceased  rattling  on  the  floor  of  the  tunnel  before  they  were  thrown 
and  shoveled  into  iron  tram-cars  and  borne  away  by  mule-trains.     Lan- 
terns bound  to  the  shoulders  of  the  mules  threw  straggling  rays  of  light 
on  the  dark  pathway;    the  dripping  walls  and  roof  reflected  the  beams 
through  a  myriad  of  water-prisms,  and  streaks  of  mottled  gray,  green,  and 
black  rocks  shone  out  at  intervals  with  vivid  distinctness,  as  if  illuminated 
by  lightning  flashes.     A  foreground  and  background  of  utter  blackness 
inclosed  the  moving  cylinder  of  changing  lights  and  shadows,  a  fitting 
frame-work  to  the  weird  picture.    As  the  train  neared  the  mouth  of  the  tun- 
nel it  was  seen  first  as  a  line  of  dancing  lights;  then  the  tinkle  of  collar- 
bells  was  faintly  heard  and  the  tramping  of  hoofs  on  the  rock  floor.    The 
light  specks  swelled  to  clearly-shining  stars  and  then  shrunk  to  red  points 
in  the  glare  of  the  sun-rays  which  transformed  the  roughly  timbered  en- 
trance into  a  white-pillared  corridor.     In  this  transfiguring  light  the  eyes 
of  the  mules  glowed  hke  carbuncles,  which  shone  in  their  dark  setting 
till  the  animals,  with  quickening  steps,  passed  through  the  gleaming  arch- 
way into  the  open  sunlight.     The  dump  at  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel  grew 
rapidly  to  the  proportions  of  an  artificial  plateau  raised  above  the  surround- 
ing valley  slope;  yet  the  speed  of  the  electric  currents  which  exploded  the 
blasts  scarcely  kept  pace  with  the  impatient  anxiety  of  the  tunnel-owners 
to  reach  the  lode  when  the  extent  of  the  great  Consolidated  Virginia 
bonanza  was  reported;  for  every  ton  raised  from  the  lode  before  the  tun- 
nel cut  it  was  a  loss  to  them  of  $2,  as  they  thought.     Urged  on  by  zeal, 
pride,  and  natural  covetousness,  the  miners  cut  their  way  indomitably 
toward  their  goal,  though  at  every  step  gained  the  work  grew  more  painful 
22  H  c 


338  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

and  dangerous.  The  temperature  at  the  face  of  the  heading  had  risen 
from  72°  Fah.  at  the  close  of  the  year  1873  to  83°  during  the  two  following 
years;  though,  in  the  summer  of  1875,  two  powerful  Root  blowers  (No.  4) 
were  constantly  employed  in  forcing  air  into  the  tunnel.  At  the  close  of 
the  year  1876  the  indicated  temperature  was  90°,  and  on  the  1st  of  Jan- 
uary, 1878,  the  men  were  working  in  a  temperature  of  96°.^  In  spite  of 
the  air  currents  from  the  blowers  the  atmosphere  before  the  end  of  the 
year  1876  had  become  almost  unbearably  foul  as  well  as  hot.  The  can- 
dles flickered  with  a  dim  light,  and  men  often  staggered  back  from  their 
posts  faint  and  sickened.  Behind  the  workers  were  sections  of  treacher- 
ous ground — crumbling  rock  and  swelling  clay — which  occasioned  con- 
stant dread  lest  some  day  the  overstrained  props  might  give  way  and  a 
falling  mass  crush  the  air-pipes  and  block  the  passage.  In  such  event 
the  men  might  die  for  lack  of  air  in  the  narrow  tomb  before  they  could 
cut  their  way  through  the  barrier  or  be  rescued  by  outside  help.  This 
was  not  a  fanciful  peril,  as  it  was  averted  more  than  once  by  the  watch- 
fulness and  promptness  of  the  miners  in  propping  up  sinking  ground  and 
piercing  the  fallen  debris.^  During  the  months  immediately  preceding 
the  junction  with  the  Savage  Mine  works  the  heading  was  cut  with  almost 
passionate  eagerness.  The  miners  were  then  two  miles  from  the  nearest 
ventilating  shaft,  and  the  heat  of  their  working  chamber  was  fast  growing 
too  intense  for  human  endurance.  The  pipe  which  supplied  compressed 
air  to  the  drills  was  opened  at  several  points,  and  the  blowers  were  worked 
to  their  utmost  capacity;  still  the  mercury  rose  from  98°  Fahr.,  on  the 
1st  of  March,  1878,  to  109°  on  the  22d  of  April,  and  the  temperature  of 
the  rock  face  of  the  heading  increased  from  110°  to  114°  during  the  same 
period.  From  the  1st  day  of  May,  1878,  it  was  necessary  to  change  the 
working  force  four  times  a  day  instead  of  three,^  as  previously,  and  the 
men  could  only  work  during  a  small  portion  of  the  nominal  hours  of 
labor.  Even  the  tough,  wiry  mules  of  the  car-train  could  hardly  be  driven 
up  to  the  end  of  the  tunnel,  and  sought  for  fresh  air  not  less  ardently  than 

'  George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunuel  Company. 

'John  Bluett,  underground  foreman  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company;  Sutro  Independent,  April  13, 1876. 

'George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 


FEATS  OF  LABOE.  339 

the  men.  Curses,  blows,  and  kicks  could  scarcely  force  them  away  from 
the  blower-tube  openings,  and  more  than  once  a  rationally-obstinate  mule 
thrust  his  head  into  the  end  of  the  canvas  air-pipe  and  was  literally  torn 
away  by  main  strength;  as  the  miners,  when  other  means  failed,  tied  his 
tail  to  the  bodies  of  two  other  mules  in  his  train  and  forced  them  to  haul 
back  their  companion,  snorting  viciously  and  slipping  with  stiff  legs  over 

the  wet  floor.^ 

Neither  men  nor  animals  could  long  endure  work  so  distressing. 
Fortunately  the  drills  knew  no  weariness  nor  pain  and  churned  their  way 
without  ceasing  to  the  mines.     At  length  the  tunnel  drew  so  near  the 
lode  that  the  men  in  the  Savage  Mine  could  hear  the  explosion  of  the 
blasts  and,  soon  after,  the  tapping  of  the  drills  on  the  rock  partition. 
These  sounds  grew  more  and  more  distinct  until,  on  the  8th  of  July,  1878, 
a  few  feet  of  rock  alone  separated  the  two  working  parties.     A  blast  from 
the  Savage  Mine  tore  an  opening  through  the  wall  in  the  evening  of  that 
day,'  and  the  goal  for  which  Sutro  had  striven  for  so  many  years  was  in 
sight.     He  was  waiting  at  the  breach  impatient  of  delay,  and  crawled,  half- 
naked,  through  the  jagged  opening  while  the  hot  foul  air  of  the  heading 
was  still  gushing  into  the  mine.     If  he  seemed  "overcome  by  excitement," 
as  reported, =*  it  was  in  no  way  surprising,  for  he  had  triumphed  over  a 
host  of  obstacles  and  his  indomitable  spirit  had  fairly  won  success.     Yet 
this  success  might  prove  a  barren  victory.     The  adjoining  mines  needed 
the  relief  thus  furnished  beyond  question,  but  their  owners  were  not 
ready  to  admit  the  validity  of  the  original  contracts  made  in  1866  with 
the  Tunnel  Company.    The  Savage  Mining  Company,  it  is  true,  professed 
their  readiness  to  abide  by  their  agreement,*  but  the  Tunnel  Company  nat- 
urally objected  against  draining  the  Savage  Mine  while  the  other  mines 
on  the  lode  refused  to  pay  for  the  service;  for  it  was  an  easy  matter  to 
divert  their  water  into  the  Savage  Mine  levels  and  thus  constrain  the 
Tunnel  Company  to  afford  them  drainage  without  consideration.     Nor 
was  this  imposition  a  fanciful  danger.  

'  Jos.  E.  Banks,  time-keeper,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company,  1878. 
«  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  9,  1878. 
s/Jid.,  July  10,  1878. 
■"  Ibid.,  February  3,  1879. 


340  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

In  February,  1879,  the  pump-rod  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine  was 
broken,  occasioning  a  rise  of  water  and  an  overflow  into  the  combination 
shaft  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross,  Savage,  and  Chollar-Potosi  mines.  In 
order  to  hold  this  overflow  in  check  it  was  found  necessary  to  pump  the 
water  into  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  and  this  was  done  notwithstanding  the  lively 
protest  of  Mr.  Sutro.  The  heat  and  volume  of  the  incoming  flood  drove 
out  the  workmen  at  the  face  of  the  heading,  and  their  superintendent 
looked  upon  the  act  as  a  declaration  of  war.^  He  had  not  neglected  to 
prepare  for  the  contest,  but  his  counterwork  had  been,  unfortunately, 
enjoined.  In  the  previous  month  he  had  begun  the  excavation  of  a  drain- 
way  near  the  face  of  the  tunnel  heading,  which  would  conduct  all  incom- 
ing water  back  into  a  lower  level  of  the  Savage  Mine.'  By  this  clever 
device  a  circulating  current  would  be  established,  and  the  same  water 
would  be  pumped  and  re-pumped  ad  infinitum;  but  in  some  way  this 
design  became  known  to  the  Savage  Mining  Company,  and  the  workmen 
were  arrested  on  the  1st  of  February,  by  virtue  of  an  order  from  Judge 
Rising,  when  only  20  feet  of  their  drift  was  still  uncut.  The  men  were 
at  once  discharged  by  the  judge  upon  satisfactory  recognizances,  but  the 
further  excavation  of  the  drainway  was  prohibited.^  This  was  naturally 
galling  to  Mr.  Sutro,  and  when  the  mine  companies  began  to  pump  water 
into  his  tunnel,  two  weeks  later,  his  indignation  was  outspoken.  He 
threatened  to  effectually  close  the  tunnel  by  a  water-tight  bulkhead,  and 
it  is  probable  that  this  act  of  reprisal  would  have  been  lawful,  though  the 
Territorial  Enterprise  scoffed  at  the  idea.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  an  under- 
ground war  was  averted  by  a  judicious  compromise.  The  mining  compa- 
nies ceased  pumping  water  into  the  tunnel  as  soon  as  the  broken  pump- 
rod  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  shaft  was  repaired,  and  during  the  following 
month  a  satisfactory  contract  with  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  was  drawn 
and  signed  by  all  the  companies  owning  mines  on  the  lode. 

If  the  mines  had  been  as  free  from  water  in  1878  as  the  hopeful  mine 
superintendents  expected  ten  years  before,  the  validity  of  the  old  contracts 

'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  18, 1879. 

'  Ibid.,  January  31, 1879. 

'  Ibid.,  February  2  and  4, 1879. 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  341 

would  assuredly  have  been  tested  by  reference  to  the  court  of  final  appeal. 
The  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  had  failed  to  comply  with  important  specifica- 
tions therein  set  forth/  and  the  adit  had  reached  the  lode  too  late  to  obvi- 
ate the  use  of  pumping  machinery  in  draining  the  mine  works  above  its 
level.     These  facts  were  presented  in  the  complaint  of  divers  companies 
praying  for  a  cancellation  of  the  contracts  made  in  1866,  and  answer  was 
filed  by  the  attorneys  for  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company  in  the  Fifteenth 
Judicial  District  Court  of  the  State  of  Cahfornia.    In  default  of  any  judicial 
decision  the  question  at  issue  is  still  undetermined,  for  before  judgment 
was  rendered  the  compromise  was  made  and  the  complaints  were  with- 
drawn.    The  utility  of  the  tunnel  as  a  drainway  could  no  longer  be  dis- 
puted, and  the  mine  companies  were  ready  to  pay  a  fair  compensation  for 
this  service,  irrespective  of  any  existing  obligation  to  this  effect.     Sums 
were  advanced  by  the  several  companies  sufficient  to  secure  the  extension 
of  the  lateral  branches  of  the  main  tunnel  along  the  line  of  the  lode,  and 
the  companies  benefited  agreed  to  pay  a  tax  of  |1  per  ton  upon  all  ore 
raised  from  their  mines  which  assayed  $40  per  ton  or  less,  and  |2  per  ton 
for  all  ore  assaying  more  than  $40  per  ton,  as  soon  as  either  of  the  lateral 
branches  should  reach  a  point  midway  between  their  respective  end  lines.^ 
Since  the  completion  of  this  compromise  the  former  contestants  have 
worked  together  in  perfect  harmony  to  secure  the  rapid  progress  of  the 
work.     On  the  1st  of  May,  1879,  a  force  of  1,000  men  began  to  cut  a 
drainage  channel  five  feet  in  width  and  three  and  a  half  feet  in  depth  in 
the  floor  of  the  tunnel,  and  two  lines  of  wooden  drain-boxes  were  laid  in 
the  channel  as  soon  as  completed.     Though  the  men  worked  with  extra- 
ordinary energy,  it  was  impossible  to  finish  the  drain  within  the  time 
specified  in  the  original  contract,  though  in  50  days  the  channel  had  been 
extended  16,550  feet  from  the  mouth  of  the  tunnel,  and  four  independent 
sections  had  been  cut  whose  aggregate  length  was  1,326  feet.     Accord- 
ingly a  hue  of  drain-boxes  was  hastily  laid  on  the  track-floor  of  the  tunnel 
as  a  continuation  of  the  channel-drain,  and  on  the  30th  of  June,  1879, 
several  mines  began  to  pump  water  into  the  tunnel.     The  temperature  of 

I  Report  of  Senate  Judiciary  Committee,  43d  Congress,  1st  Session,  No.  422. 
^  Pelham  W.  Ames,  Secretary  Sutro  Tunnel  Company.     . 


342  HISTORY  OF  THE  OOMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  water  issuing  from  the  end  of  the  drain-box  was  101°  Fahr.,  which 
gradually  increased  to  118°  Fahr.,  the  initial  temperature  at  the  close  of 
the  year  1880  being  about  137°  Fahr.^  The  main  tunnel  was  extended  to  a 
point  20,489  feet  from  its  mouth,  and  as  the  lateral  branches  were  advanced 
connection  was  made  with  the  mine  shafts  as  rapidly  as  possible,  so  that 
before  the  close  of  the  year  1880  a  great  volume  of  water  was  flowing 
through  the  tunnel.  On  the  4th  of  October,  1880,  the  length  of  the  north 
lateral  branch  was  4,403  feet,  when  work  was  discontinued,  as  mine 
galleries  already  excavated  furnished  the  additional  length  of  drainway 
desired.^  The  length  of  the  south  lateral  branch,  on  the  1st  of  March, 
1881,  was  4,114  feet,  and  the  heading  was  advancing  rapidly  to  connect 
with  a  drainway  or  drift  from  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine.^  Both  branches  are 
8  feet  in  width  by  7  in  height  in  the  clear.  Through  these  incomplete 
drainways  208  miner's  inches,  or  3,500,000  gallons  of  water,  flowed  daily 
during  1880,  and  the  amount  received  during  24  hours  sometimes  rose  to 
232  inches,  3,942,720  gallons.*  Thus  during  the  year  1,277,500,000  gal- 
lons of  water,  or  4,752,605  tons,  were  drained  from  the  Comstock  Lode, 
and  when  the  mine  connections  are  fully  completed  it  is  estimated  that 
at  least  half  as  much  more  will  be  discharged  through  the  tunnel.  At 
present,  1881,  the  only  use  made  of  this  water  is  for  purposes  of  irrigation 
in  the  valley,  and  to  carry  a  turbine  which  propels  the  machinery  in  the 
shops  of  the  company.^ 

The  cost  of  excavating  and  timbering  the  main  tunnel,  20,489  feet  in 
length,  up  to  the  date  of  its  completion,  Sept.  1,  1878,  was  |1,367,577.21. 
By  the  enlargement  of  the  heading,  etc.,  an  additional  expense  of 
$296,723.84  was  entailed,  to  which  should  be  added  cost  of  sub-drain, 
$384,824.10,  and  cost  of  repairs,  $43,441.34,  making  total  cost  of  main 
tunnel  (not  including  expenses  of  management  of  company)  up  to  October 
12, 1881,  $2,096,566.41.^ 


'  George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 

'  Annual  Eeport  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company,  1881,  p.  9. 

"  Ibid.,  p.  10.     Connection  made  March  25,  1881 ;  Territorial  Enterprise,  Maixh  26, 1881. 

■*  Annual  Report  of  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company,  1881,  p.  12 ;  Report  of  Superintendent  C.  C.  Thomas. 

'George  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 

•Pelham  W.  Ames,  Secretary  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  343 

The  mining  companies  had  indeed  reason  to  urge  forward  the  com- 
pletion of  the  drainway.  Since  1874  they  had  been  struggling  to  make 
head  against  the  increasing  influx  of  water  with  only  partial  success.  Up 
to  that  time  the  pumps  in  place  had  been  able  to  cope  with  the  increasing 
floods,  though  work  in  a  number  of  mines  had  been  seriously  delayed  and 
impeded;  but  when  the  shafts  began  to  pass  the  2,000-foot  level  the  water 
influx  was  no  longer  held  in  check.  Thus,  in  1875,  water  which  entered 
the  Savage  and  Hale  &  Norcross  mines  on  the  2,200-foot  level  rose  to  the 
1,750-foot  level  in  spite  of  the  continuous  working  of  the  pumps,  and 
flooded  the  mines  to  the  depth  of  450  feet,  as  the  2,400-foot  level  had  been 
partially  opened.  New  pumps,  capable  of  lifting  to  the  surface  10,000,000 
gallons  per  month,  were  immediately  built,  but  in  December,  1878,  the 
water  had  only  been  lowered  to  a  point  50  feet  below  the  2,000-foot  level. 
It  is  true  that  the  pumps  were  not  working  unremittingly,  owing  to  the 
frequent  breaking  of  the  Savage  Mine  pump-rod,  yet  it  was  calculated  that 
during  the  thirty  months  ending  December,  1878,  450,000,000  gallons,  or 
1,800,000  tons  of  water  had  been  taken  from  the  two  mines. ^  In  some 
instances,  as  in  the  case  just  cited,  the  failure  to  master  the  water  was 
unquestionably  due  to  the  increased  flow,  for  after  passing  the  Carson 
Valley  level  the  area  of  drainage  had  unquestionably  extended;  in  other 
cases  it  might  be  attributed  to  the  inadequacy  of  the  pumping  machinery, 
for  engines  which  could  free  the  mines  from  water  to  the  level  of  the 
Sutro  Tunnel  were  manifestly  unable  to  raise  the  same  number  of  gallons 
from  a  greater  depth.  When  the  necessity  for  more  powerful  machinery 
became  evident,  some  of  the  mining  companies  whose  faith  and  capital 
were  small  contented  themselves  for  some  years  with  prospecting  in  the 
upper  levels,  after  months  of  costly  experiment  with  their  inefl'ective 
pumps,  and  allowed  the  water  to  rise  unopposed  to  its  natural  level. 
Others,  more  energetic  and  capable,  contracted  at  once  for  pumping  and 
hoisting  engines  of  greater  power  and  prepared  to  push  the  work  of  explor- 
ation in  spite  of  all  obstacles. 

In  the  character  of  the  plant  thus  erected  it  was  evident  that  the 
formidableness  of  the  water  plague  was  clearly  realized.    The  experience 

'The  Comstock  Lode:  Its  Formation  and  History;  John  A.  Church,  E.M.,  p.  23. 


344 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE, 


of  fifteen  years  had  convinced  all  the  mining  companies  that  the  influx  of 
water  could  only  be  held  in  check  by  pumping  machinery  of  the  most 
powerful  description.  It  was  a  long  stride  from  the  first  little  steam- 
pump,  with  a  cylinder  of  eight  inches  diameter,  erected  at  the  Ophir 
Mine  in  1861,  to  the  heavy  Cornish  pumping-engine  in  place  at  the  same 
mine,  fifteen  years  later,  which  was  able  to  lift,  in  1880,  360  gallons  of 
water  per  minute  900  feet  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel  level.^    Yet  this  engine 


'  The  nearest  point  of  the  lateral  branch  level  is  1,597  feet  below  the  top  of  the  Ophir  shaft,  so  that  the 
mine  water  was  actually  raised  from  a  depth  of  2,500  feet  in  round  numbers.  For  the  sake  of  clearness  a  list  of 
the  mine  shafts  and  their  respective  altitudes  in  reference  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel  is  given. 

Table  A. — List  of  shafts  and  the  respective  altitudes  of  their  mouths  in  reference  to 

Sutro  Tunnel. 


Name  of  Shaft. 

ALTITtTDE  ABOVE 
SEA  LEVEL. 

Altitude  above 

the  mouth  of  suteo 

Tunnel. 

Altitude  above 

POINT  nearest  SdTEO 

Tunnel  shaft. 

Utah 

Feet. 
5,996 
6,031 
6,068 
6,131 
6,156 
6,038 
6,194 
5,966 
6,181 
6,157 
6,133 
6,226 
6,307 
6,118 
6,160 
5,961 
6, 051 
5,925 
5,981 
5,981 
6,038 
5,731 
6, 116 
5,892 

Feet. 
1,513 
1,548 
1,585 
1,648 
1,673 
1,555 
1,711 
1,583 
1,698 
1,674 
1,650 
1,743 
1,824 
1,635 
1,677 
1,478 
1,568 
1,442 
1,498 
1,498 
1,555 
1,248 
1,633 
1,409 

Feet.     In. 
1,453    4 
1,492    6 
1,531    7 
1,597     1 
1,623    6 
1,505    6 
1,663    8 
1,436    1 
1,663    8 
1,627    8 
1,618    8 
1,695    2 
1,775    3 
1,.584    9 
1,626    3 
1,424     1 
1,514    1 
1,388    1 
1,444    1 
1,444     1 
1,495    4 
1,192    5 
1,585    2 
1,363    1 

Sierra  Nevada --. 

Union          .. ..-.-. . ...... 

Ophir- 

Consolidated  Virginia 

c.  &  C 

Oflbiston          - ....  .--. .... 

Savage           ...... . .... 

Hale  &  Norcross 

Combination   ... .... 

Choi  lar- Pot  osi 

Bullion 

"Ward 

Imnerial 

Yellow  Jacket,  "Old" 

Yellow  Jacket,  "New" 

Crown  Point 

Old  Belcher 

Old  Overman         ......... 

Mint 

FEATS  OF  LABOR.  345 

scarcely  surpassed  the  pump  of  1861  in  power  more  than  it  is  excelled 
itself  by  the  engines  in  place  at  the  great  combination  shafts,  sunk  by 
the  mining  companies  at  points  hundreds  of  yards  east  of  their  early 

workings. 

The  compound  direct-acting  pumping  engine  of  480  horse-power,  at 
the  joint  shaft  of  the  California  and  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  compa- 
nies (C.  &  C.  shaft),  lifted  during  the  year  1880  from  480  to  640  gallons 
per  minute  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel  level,  a  computed  average  of  950  feet  ver- 
tically, raising  during  the  year  1,180,568  tons  of  water  from  the  bottom  of 
the  shaft.  At  the  shaft  owned  and  operated  by  the  Sierra  Nevada,  Union, 
and  Mexican  companies  an  engine  of  similar  design  but  of  540  horse- 
power (high -pressure  cylinder,  64-inch  diameter  and  81-inch  stroke;  low- 
pressure  condensing  -  cylinder,  100 -inch  diameter  and  99-inch  stroke), 
working  at  half  capacity,  raised  693  gallons  per  minute,  during  the  year 
1880,  a  distance  of  1,100  feet  {i.  e.,  from  sump  to  Sutro  Tunnel  level),  or 
1,400,706  tons  in  all,  and  the  compound  pumping-engine  of  the  Yellow 
Jacket  Mining  Company,  working  at  400  horse-power  during  1880,  with 
five  strokes  per  minute,  raised  800  gallons  1,500  feet,  vertically,  to  the 
Sutro  Tunnel  level. 

To  prospect  the  ledge  sections  owned  by  the  Overman,  Caledonia,  and 
Segregated  Belcher  companies,  at  a  vertical  depth  of  4,000  feet,  a  great 
shaft  was  begun  on  the  18th  of  September,  1878,  and  a  600  horse-power 
pumping-engine  erected.  It  is  a  direct-acting  compound  engine,  like  most 
of  those  placed  on  the  lode  since  1875,  and  is  designed  to  cope  with  any 
influx  which  may  be  encountered.  Up  to  the  year  1881  it  easily  drained 
the  shaft,  but  it  is  probable  that  its  capacity  will  be  fully  tested  before  the 
lode  is  reached ;  for  into  the  shaft  owned  by  the  Chollar,  Hale  &  Nor- 
cross,  and  Savage  Mining  companies  102,000  gallons  of  water  was  flowing 
every  hour  during  the  spring  of  1881,  and  their  600  horse-power  com- 
pound condensing  pumping-engine  could  not  drain  the  shaft,  though  rais- 
ing 1,000  gallons  per  minute.  Hence  a  new  hydraulic  pumping-engine, 
guaranteed  to  lift  96,000  gahons  per  hour  from  the  level  reached  by  the 
shaft,  was  erected  in  April,  1881,  and  the  power  of  the  combined  engines  is 
needed  in  order  to  prosecute  work.     But  the  duty  imposed  upon  the 


346  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Comstock  pumps  is,  perhaps,  most  clearly  set  forth  in  the  simple  record 
that  20,000  tons  of  water  were  raised  daily  during  1880  to  the  level  of 
the  Sutro  Tunnel.^  It  is  not  surprising  that  under  this  extraordinary 
and  prolonged  strain  the  pump -rods  have  been  breaking  frequently, 
though  the  sections  are  solid  timbers  of  the  best  Oregon  pine,  whose 
end  area  is  14  by  16  inches  usually,  strapped  together  with  10-inch  iron 
plates.^ 

Whether  the  excavation  of  a  tunnel  for  a  distance  of  nearly  four 
miles  to  drain  away  this  flood  was  an  economic  plan  cannot  yet  be 
determined.  To  answer  this  question  conclusively  the  number  of  years 
during  which  the  tunnel  will  be  of  practical  utility  must  first  be  known. 
Its  construction  has  cost  in  round  numbers  $2,000,000,  exclusive  of  the 
large  expenses  of  general  management  and  litigation,  which  should,  per- 
haps, be  added  to  the  amount.  To  erect  pumping  machinery  of  1,540 
working  horse-power,  capable  of  raising  20,000  tons  of  water  daily,  from 
the  Sutro  Tunnel  level  to  the  surface-drain  tunnel  of  the  Gould  &  Curry 
Mine,  a  lift  of  1,300  feet,  would  cost  approximately  $225,000,  according  to 
recent  estimates.^  For  the  fuel  supply  of  these  engines  (or  engine)  77 
cords  of  wood  would  be  required  every  twenty-four  hours,  or  28,105  cords 
yearly,  the  cost  of  which,  at  $10  per  cord,  would  be  $280,050.  If  the 
expense  of  maintaining  and  operating  this  pumping-plant  be  fixed  at 
$350,000  yearly,  or  seven  times  as  much  as  that  of  repairing  the  tunnel, 
it  is  evident  that  the  difference  in  cost  of  maintenance  would  allow  a  high 
rate  of  interest  upon  the  actual  cost  of  construction  of  the  tunnel,  even  if 
the  returns  to  the  stockholders  of  the  tunnel  company  in  the  form  of  divi- 
dends upon  the  preposterous  stock  capitalization  were  unsatisfactory.  If 
the  tunnel  can  be  utilized  also,  in  connection  with  milling  or  concentrating 
works  at  its  mouth,  for  the  reduction  of  low-grade  ores,  the  cost  of  its  con- 
struction may  possibly  be  offset  in  a  few  years  by  the  saving  thus  effected. 

'  Estimate  of  W.  H.  Patton,  C.  E..  Superintendent  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company. 

■2  The  Belcher  Mine  pump-rod  broke  twelve  times  in  the  eight  months  ending  August  31,  1880,  and  was 
discarded  in  September,  1880,  for  a  new  and  heavier  rod.  (Report  of  W.  H.  Smith,  Superintendent  of  the  Belcher 
Mining  Company,  January  22, 1881.)  The  rods  in  use  three  years  ago,  11  and  14  inches  square  (The  Coms(ock 
Lode,  John  A.  Church,  E.  M.,  p.  27),  have  almost  uniformly  proved  too  weak  for  the  service  imposed. 

=  W.  R.  Eckart,  C.  E.,  for  the  United  States  Geological  Survey. 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  347 

At  present  (1881)  these  points  are  evidently  matters  of  speculation  and 
not  of  history. 

The  other  plant  at  the  mines  corresponds  in  size  and  efficiency  with 
the  pumping-engines.  Ten  boilers  at  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  works,  16 
feet  in  length  and  54  inches  in  diameter,  resting  upon  a  grate  surface  of 
250  square  feet,  supply  steam  to  engines  whose  aggregate  horse-power  is 
2,941.  The  two  hoisting -engines  at  the  working  compartments  of  the 
shaft  are  1,000  horse-power  each  (diameter  of  cylinder  128  inches  and 
stroke  8  feet),  and  the  pump  compartment  hoisting-engine  is  of  500  horse- 
power (diameter  of  cylinder  118  inches  and  stroke  2  feet).  At  the  Union 
shaft  (belonging  to  Sierra  Nevada,  Union  Consolidated,  and  Mexican  Mining 
companies)  the  hoisting-engine  for  the  working  compartment  is  of  1,200 
horse-power,  and  the  pump  compartment  hoisting-engine  of  400  horse- 
power. The  twelve  boilers,  with  a  grate  surface  of  270  square  feet,  con- 
sume thirty -three  cords  of  wood  every  twenty -four  hours.  The  main 
hoisting -engine  at  the  C.  &  C.  shaft,  double  cylinder,  horizontal,  direct- 
acting,  with  brake  fly-wheels,  is  of  2,000  horse-power.  This  great  engine 
raises  an  iron  cage  with  three  car-loads  of  ore  or  waste  rock,  weighing 
12,400  pounds,^  a  distance  of  2,500  feet  with  perfect  ease,  lowering  a  cage 
filled  with  men  or  empty  at  the  same  time.  The  cables  in  use  are  of  steel 
wire, woven  into  a  flat  band,  7  inches  in  breadth  and  five-eighths  of  an  inch 
in  thickness,  passing  over  sheaves  or  pulleys  45  feet  above  the  shaft-mouth, 
and  wound  over  tapering  drums  from  5  to  14  feet  in  circumference.  But  it 
is  unnecessary  for  the  purposes  of  this  report  to  multiply  examples.  It  is 
sufficient  to  note  that  the  aggregate  horse-power  of  the  engines  on  the  lode 
in  the  spring  of  1881  was  20,914,  fourteen  times  as  great  as  in  the  spring  of 
1866,  fifteen  years  previously.  Indeed,  the  combined  horse-power  of  the 
Yellow  Jacket  Mine  engines  alone  (2,941)  is  nearly  double  the  total  horse- 
power of  the  forty-four  engines  owned  by  the  mining  companies  then 
working  on  the  lode. 

Pounds. 

'Weight  of  cage,  three-decker 4,000 

Weight  of  three  cars  (l,aOO  lbs.) 3,600 

Weight  of  three  car-loads  (1,600  lbs.) 4,800 

Total 12,400 


348 


HI6T0EY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


Table  showing  Consumption  of  power  and  material  used  on  Oomstock  Lode. 


Nam  a  of  Mine. 


Andes 

Alta 

Baltimore  Consolidated. .. 

Belcher 

Belcher  &  Crown  Point 

Pump  Shaft. 
Best  &  Belcher 

Bullion  Combination 

Caledonia 

California,  C.&C.  Shaft  .. 

Chollar,  Norcross,  Savage 

Con,  Shaft. 
Chollar-Potosi 

Consolidated  Imperial 

Consolidated  Virginia 

Crown  Point 

Forman  Shaft 

Gould  &  Curry 

Hale  &  Norcross 

Justice 

Mexican 


i  H 

O    P 

a  o 

"o 

H 


Mint 

New  York 

Ophir 

Original  Keystone  . . . . 

Osbiston  Shaft 

Overman 

Savage 

Scorpion 

Sierra  Nevada 

Silver  Hill 

Union  Consolidated  . . . 

Union  Shaft 

Utah 

Yellow  Jacket 


60 
730 


140 
4.')0 

20 

258 

366 

2,680 

1,625 


816 


630 
846 
550 
634 


25 
1,082 


790 
524 
1,541 
40 
965 
480 

2,370 

351 

2,941 


Lbs. 
65 
100 
100 
100 
110 


Quality  of  fuel  used. 


100 
90 

100 
90 


80 


80 

95 

100 

100 


70 
90 

100 
85 
90 
90 

105 
85 

100 

110 

95 

100 
100 


Yellow  pine  . 
Pitch  pine  - . 


Pine. 


Pine,  tamarack,  and  fir. 


Pine  and  fir  . 


Pine- 


Pine. 


Pine. 


Pine 

Yellow  pine 

Pitch  pine 

Pine,  tamarack,  and  fir. 


Pine,  tamarack,  and  fir. 
Yellow  pine 


Pine 

Yellow  pine . 


Cords. 

1 
12 


20 
19 


12 

6.38 
30 
15 


15 


6.25 
5.9 


19 


1 

2 

23 

4 

5.50 
13.54 


1 
42 

24 

33 

6 
30 


■s  p. 
S  S 

0-3 

<v  ^ 

S^  =3 
St.-  ? 


Cords. 

364 

4,380 


7,300 
6,270 


a  =  S  c 


4,380 

2,321 

10,950 

5,475 


5,475 


2, 281. 25 
2,181 


6,935 


365 
7.30 
8,395 
1,460 
1,845 
4,930 


364 
15,330 

8,760 

12, 045 

2,190 
10,950 


364 
365 

365 
330 

200 
365 
364 
365 
365 

90 
365 

365 
365 

365 

365 
365 
365 
365 
365 
335 
364 
365 
364 
365 
365 

365 

3u5 
365 


In  the  construction  and  equipment  of  the  reduction  works  a  like  prep- 
aration has  been  made  for  work  upon  a  grand  scale.  The  Consolidated 
Virginia  mill  with  sixty  stamps,  forty  pans,  four  agitators,  and  twenty 


FEATS  OF  LABOR.  349 

settlers,  can  reduce  250  tons  of  ore  in  twenty-four  hours,  while  in  the 

California  works  engines  of  600  aggregate  horse -power  operate  eighty 

stamps  weighing  984  pounds  each,  forty-six  pans,  four  agitators,  and 

twenty  settlers,  which  can  crush  and  amalgamate  380  tons  of  ore  daily. 

The  cost  of  this  admirable  plant  is  very  great,  as  might  be  supposed.    The 

appraised  value  of  the  mine  works  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining 

Company  (including  works  at  C.  &  C.  shaft)  in  1879  was  $675,000,  and  the 

cost  of  the  California  Reduction  Works  exceeded  half  a  million  dollars. 

Yet  the  outlay  upon  the  surface  works  is  only  a  small  proportion  of 

the  actual  amount  expended  by  the  mining  companies.     In  sinking  the 

joint  shaft  of  the  California  and  Consolidated  Virginia  mining  companies 

to  the  depth  of  2,200  feet,  nine  hundred  thousand  dollars  ($899,962.80) 

were  paid  for  labor,  supplies,  and  incidental  expenses.^    When  a  mine 

becomes  productive  its  operating  expenses  are  reckoned  by  millions  rather 

than  thousands  of  dollars.    Thus,  during  a  single  year,  1877,  the  California 

Mining  Company  expended  more  than  $4,000,000,  viz : 

Actual  Cost  of  Mine.  Dk. 

Supplies  consumed $357, 101.  67 

Salaries  and  wages 788,012.  00 

Office  expense 3,  047.  70 

Taxes 461,  637.  93 

Surveying 1,050.00 

Legal  expense 70,426.  20 

Team  account 780.  25 

Hoisting 186,  461.  82 

Reduction 2,220,007.87 

Assaying 53,  208. 19 

Interest  and  exchange 9. 156.  01 

Half  expense  C.  &  C.  shaft 131,  000.  00 

Total $4,  281,  889.  64 

Cr. 

Sale  of  supplies $143.  32 

Interest 194. 12 

General  expense,  cash  returned 120.  65 

Balance,  actual  cost  of  mine 4,  281,  431.  55 

Total L $4,  281,  889.  64 

'  Keport  of  W.  H.  Patton,  Superintendeut ;  Annual  Report  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  1879, 
pp.  33,  43,  44. 


350  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

An  itemized  statement  of  supplies  purchased  by  the  same  company 

during  this  year  (1877)  conveys  a  more  accurate  idea  of  the  character 
and  extent  of  the  under-ground  work  than  is  given  by  the  simple  record 

of  the  length  of  drifts  cut  and  of  the  number  of  tons  of  ore  extracted; 

for  a  very  large  amount  of  extra  work  was  done  in  keeping  the  main 
shaft  and  stations  in  serviceable  condition,  in  maintaining  the  working 
drifts,  and  in  opening  air  connections.^ 

Supplies  Purchased,  1877. 

Timber,  10,430,645  feet $224,977.52 

"Wood,  mahogany,  12  cords 216.00 

Candles 15,  950.  50 

Powder 17,  340.  95 

Fuse 2,  662.  37 

Oil 4,  683.  70 

Picks,  sledges,  and  handles 1,  263.  87 

Axes  and  handles 333.  00 

Shovels 952.  00 

Iron  :  Plate,  53,000  pounds 3, 180.  00 

Round  and  square,  3,554  pounds 212.  47 

T-rail  and  fittings,  28,510  pounds 1,  096.  43 

Angle,  1,800  pounds 80.  03 

Steel,  6,400  pounds Ij  103.  50 

Nails  and  spikes,  9,300  pounds 489.  85 

Lanterns  and  sconces,  31  dozen 460.  00 

Brooms,  65  dozen 509.  25 

Buckets  and  dippers,  41  dozen 424.  00 

Gas-pipe,  3,403  feet 794.  43 

Air-pipe,  403  feet 442.  75 

Ice,  1,957,402  pounds 21,  899.  43 

Tallow,  400  pounds 36.  00 

Hose,  425  feet 328.  73 

Belting,  175  feet 37.  55 

Caps,  1,090  boxes 1, 123.  00 

Ore  cars,  28 3,  080.  00 

Blowers,  9 405.  00 

Sample  sacks,  1,000 97.  50 

Wheelbarrows,  38 696.  00 

1  small  engine 355.  00 

$305,130.83 

>  Annual  Report  of  the  California  Mining  Company,  1878;  Eeport  of  W.  H.  Patton,  Superintendent,  p.  17, 


FEATS  OF  LABOE. 


351 


Brought  forward 305,130.83 


Lagging. 
Paint  __. 


105.  00 
338. 61 


Cartage 

Coal  and  charcoal 
Medical  supplies . 
Clothing 


Freight 1.  844.  50 

151. 00 

2,  280.  37 

832. 58 

367. 25 

Miscellaneous  supplies 4,010.  53 

Total -  $315,  060.  67 

Yet  the  supplies  purchased  were  only  a  portion  of  those  actually 
consumed,  costing  |356,958.35,  without  reckoning  the  fuel,  timber,  and 
other  supplies  consumed  in  the  hoisting-works  and  shaft  (the  C.  &  C), 
which  cost  an  additional  sum  of  $547,416.80.^  Fully  600,000,000  feet  of 
timbers  have  been  buried  in  the  mines,^  an  amount  sufficient  to  build  a 
town  of  nearly  thirty  thousand  two-story  frame  houses  (each  40  by  25 
feet  and  containing  six  rooms)  which  would  comfortably  shelter  150,000 
inhabitants.  More  than  two  million  cords  of  wood  have  been  consumed 
as  fuel  by  the  mine  hoisting-works  and  by  the  mills  reducing  ores  from 
the  lode. 

Records  of  Virginia  and  Truchee  Railroad. 


Teabb. 

Lumber  Shipments. 

Wood  SHirHEUTs— Fnit. 

{In  feet.) 

(In  coriJs.) 

1874 

52,220,801 

139,808 

1875 

72,526,465 

179,295 

1876 

71,633,072 

212,278i 

1877 

38,981,967 

221, 496S 

1678 

34,427,502 

205,311i 

1879 

31,443,771 

185,622i 

Note.— Free  freight  (Eailroad  Company's  suppliea)  included  in  the  above  Btatement 


The   accompanying  diagram  -  map   shows  more   graphically  than  a 
description  the  extent  and  position  of  the  claims  on  the  lode: 


'  Annual  Eeport  of  the  California  Mining  Company,  1878,  p.  34. 

»  Carefnl  estimate  based  on  official  reports  of  Mining  Companies ;  of  State  Surveyor  General;   of  United 
States  Mining  Commissioner,  and  Records  of  Virginia  and  Truckee  Eailroad. 


352 


HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


By  the  companies  holding  these  claims  and  their  predecessors  140 
miles  of  mine-galleries  have  been  excavated  during  the  past  twenty  years/ 
and  7,000,000  tons  of  ore  have  been  extracted.^  With  scarce  an  exception 
the  shafts  of  their  mines  have  penetrated  more  than  2,000  feet  into  the 
mountain  side,  while  the  deepest  have  passed  the  3,000-foot  level.^ 

On  the  line  of  the  lode  the  cities  which  have  been  reared  contain  a 
population  of  16,000,  according  to  the  Census  of  1880,*  which  has  been 
swelled  in  times  of  bonanza  to  more  than  20,000.  The  following  table, 
showing  the  relative  numbers  and  character  of  the  business  establish- 
ments in  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill,  may  be  compared  with  the  like  table 
prepared  at  the  close  of  the  year  1860  (p.  94): 

Business  houses,  shops,  &c.,  in  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill,  1S80. 


Groceries 39 

Dry  goods 6 

Clothing 7 

Merchant  tailors 7 

Boots  and  shoes 5 

Milliners 7 

Furniture  stores 6 

Butcher-shops 15 

Fruit 5 

Liquor  merchants 5 

Tobacconists 9 

Fancy  goods 3 

Stationers 4 

Hardware 3 

Tin-ware  and  stoves 3 

Harness  makers  and  saddlers 3 

Druggists 8 

Music  store 1 

Paints  and  oils 1 

Giant  powder  agency 1 


Sewing-machine  agency 1 

Gun-shop 1 

Pawnbroker 1 

Lodging-houses 12 

Restaurants 22 

Board-and-lodging  houses 10 

Hotels 2 

Livery  stables 5 

Bankers 3 

Brokers 11 

Undertakers 3 

Feed-stables 2 

Saloous 100 

Boiler-shops  i 2 

Blacksmith-shops 7 

Dairies 11 

Prisons  (county  jail) 1 

Foundries 3 

Ice  dealers 4 

Theatre 1 


Wire-rope 1 

There  are  2,200  buildings  in  Virginia  City,  92  of  which  are  of  brick. 
Of  the  213  business  houses  in  Virginia  City  which  pay  license  91  are 
brick  buildings. 

'  Maps  of  L.  J.  Wrinkle,  OfBcial  Surveyor. 

^  Official  Reports  of  Comstock  Mining  Companies  and  County  Assessors'  Eeporta. 

^  Belcher  and  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  shafts. 

<  Population  of  Virginia  City,  10,917;  Gold  Hill,  4,531;  Silver  City,  605. 


=   X 


X 


X  = 


■-'     -J 


-/ 


I   I 


r 


FEATS  OF  LABOE.  353 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  requirements  of  the  Comstock  mining  towns 
are  nearly  as  varied  and  comprehensive  as  those  of  any  modern  city  of 
equal  size.  The  people  have  been  able  to  pay  for  what  they  wanted,  and 
hence  have  been  as  well  cared  for  as  if  their  homes  were  not  among  bar- 
ren hills,  shut  off  from  the  sources  of  supply  by  mountains  and  deserts. 
It  is  true  that  the  cost  of  maintaining  these  exotic  towns  with  their 
manifold  wants  has  been  enormous.  The  supplies,  exclusive  of  timber 
and  fuel,  imported  by  the  mining  towns  during  the  past  twenty  years, 
certainly  exceed  600,000  tons,  and  the  freight-charges  at  a  low  estimate 
would  amount  to  |50,000,000.^  Yet  this  outlay  has  been  justified,  for  the 
product  of  the  mines  up  to  the  1st  of  January,  1881,  has  been  in  round 
numbers  7,000,000  tons,  yielding  bullion  valued  at  $306,000,000.'' 

The  dividends  paid  by  the  several  companies  up  to  the  close  of 
the  census  year  June  30, 1880,  aggregate  $116,000,000,  and  to  this  amount 
should  be  added  the  profits  gained  by  individual  owners  and  unincorpo- 
rated associations,  not  reported,  but  probably  amounting  to  at  least 
$2,000,000— in  all  $118,000,000.  The  sum  of  assessments  paid  during 
the  same  period  is  $62,000,000,'  showing  a  balance  of  profit  of  $56,000,000." 

'  Vide  Table  XFV,  Appendix.  =  Fide  Table  II,  Appendix.  '  Vide  Table  III,  Appendix. 

*  Mr.  Alexander  Del  Mar,  in  his  recently  published  History  of  the  Precious  Metals,  makes  .an  ingenious 
attempt  to  prove  the  unprolitableness  of  mining  operations  on  the  Comstock  Lode,  and  reaches  the  conclusion 
that  "each  pounds'  worth  of  dor^  has  cost  to  the  mine  owners  about  five  pounds."  This  astonishing  proposition 
is  based  on  the  assumption  that  ''the  Comstock  Lode  has  cost  from  £120,000,000  to  £140,000,000,  if  the  highest 
price  be  taken,  which  each  mine  at  one  time  or  another  has  brought."*  Yet  Mr.  Del  Mar  must  know  well  that 
stock  exchange  sales  do  not  always  mean  transfers  of  cash  from  one  person  to  another,  and  that  preposterous 
quotations  are  only  possible  when  few  wish  to  sell  and  all  to  buy.  If  mining  stocks  were  bought  as  invest- 
ments usually,  and  not  for  the  purpose  of  speculation  upon  the  deposit  of  "  margins,"  his  figures  might  be  less 
questionable;  but  the  available  capital  of  the  stock  market  is  ridiculously  disproportioned  to  its  fictitious  valua 
tions,  and  even  in  times  of  the  wildest  excitement  a  large  holder  can  break  the  market  at  will  by  the  actual 
disposal  of  the  shares  in  his  hands.  £140,000,000  was  never  paid  for  the  Comstock  Lode  Mines,  and  even  if  it 
had  been  paid  Mr.  Del  Mar's  conclusion  is  invalid  or  misleading;  for  the  profits  of  mining  can  only  be  reckoned 
fairly  as  the  difference  between  the  yield  and  the  cost  of  acquiring  and  developing  the  ledge  locations.  Now  the 
prospectors  or  original  locators  on  the  line  of  the  Comstock  Lode  received  less  than  $200,000  for  their  claims. 
The  working  capital  contributed  by  their  grantees,  or  derived  from  the  sale  of  reserve  stock  prior  to  the  levy  of 
assessments,  did  not  exceed  $1,000,000,  certainly.  Assessments  and  the  bullion  product  have  defrayed  all 
expenses  of  production  since  1860.  Therefore,  $1,200,000  -\-  the  bullion  product  and  -f-  assessments  but  — 
dividends  and  the  market  value  of  the  mines  and  mining  plant  will  represent  the  actual  costs  of  mining  on  the 
lode,  and  the  difference  between  this  sum  and  the  total  yield  will  be  the  actual  profits  of  mining.  This  is 
a  considerable  sum,  and  would  assuredly  have  been  greater  if  the  operating  expenses  had  not  been  swelled  by 
early  extravagance,  ignorance,  and  litigation. 
*  History  of  the  Precious  Metals;  Del  Mar,  p.  266. 

23  H  0 


354  HISTOET  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

Reviewing  this  exhibit  it  may  fairly  be  said  that  silver  mining  on  the 
Comstock  Lode  has  assumed  gigantic  proportions — is  conducted  on  a 
magnificent  and  unprecedented  scale.  It  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  the 
extraordinary  progress  here  made  evident  is  largely  due  to  the  system  of 
mine  ownership.  The  wide  distribution  of  the  mine  shares,  the  compara- 
tively light  burden  of  assessments  upon  individual  holders,  and  the  daily 
revival  of  interest  in  the  mines,  through  the  agency  of  the  stock  exchanges, 
have  united  to  maintain  a  rate  of  development  hitherto  without  parallel 
in  mining  history.  When  at  times  the  general  public  have  hesitated  to 
supply  funds  and  the  industry  of  the  district  has  been  depressed,  daring 
speculators  have  risked  their  fortunes  on  the  cast  and  continued  the 
search  for  ore.  Thus  the  work  has  never  been  suffered  to  flag,  and  thus 
borrasca  has  been  displaced  by  bonanza. 


•ri 


CHAPTER    XVIII. 

THE  LABORERS  OF  WASHOE. 

To  the  miners  of  Washoe  this  persistent  search  and  liberal  supply  of 
capital  has  been  a  perennial  bonanza.  For  fourteen  years  they  have 
contrived  to  uphold  their  arbitrary  standard  of  wages  and  have  excluded  all 
laborers  except  members  of  the  unions  from  obtaining  work  in  the  mines; 
nor  have  they  always  been  content  to  rule  the  mining  industry  alone,  but 
they  have  constituted  themselves  guardians  of  the  laboring  classes  through- 
out the  district  whenever  they  saw  fit  to  do  so. 

In  May,  1869,  the  miners'  unions  of  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill 
issued  a  formal  appeal  to  the  workingmen  of  Nevada,  calling  upon  all 
branches  of  labor  to  organize  and  send  delegates  to  a  Workingmen's  Con- 
vention, at  Virginia  City,  July  6,  1869.  The  declared  object  of  this  organ- 
ization "was  to  maintain  the  wages  of  labor  at  a  satisfactory  standard,  and 
to  prevent  the  firm  seating  of  Chinese  labor  in  our  midst."  "  Present  immu- 
nity," continued  the  florid  manifesto,  "is  no  criterion  for  future  security. 
Can  the  Typographical  Union  beat  back  the  swelling  tide  of  coolies?"  etc., 
etc.^  The  appeal  did  not  excite  much  interest  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
Washoe  district,  and  the  projected  combination  of  workingmen  through- 
out the  State  was  never  completed;  but  within  the  domain  of  the  miners' 
unions  their  word  was  law.  If  the  Typographical  Union  could  not  beat 
back  the  coolie  tide,  the  miners'  unions  were  able  and  willing  to  stem  it. 
No  superintendent  had  dared  to  employ  Chinese  laborers  in  the  mines, 
but  when  Mr.  Sharon  and  his  associates  undertook  the  construction  of 
the  Virginia  &  Truckee  Railroad,  a  considerable  body  of  Chinese  was 
engaged  to  grade  the  road-bed.  For  some  time  they  were  allowed  to  work 
unmolested,  though  the  spectacle  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  the  rulers  of 

» Territorial  Enterprise,  May  29,  1869. 

(355) 


356  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  Comstock  Lode,  who  could  look  down  from  Mount  Davidson  upon  the 
bustling  swarms  on  American  Flat.  At  length  their  rising  indignation 
could  no  longer  be  held  in  check,  and  on  the  29th  of  September,  1869, 
strong  deputations  from  the  miners'  unions  of  Virginia  City  and  Gold 
Hill,  about  350  men  all  told,  headed  by  their  respective  officers,  marched 
upon  the  Chinese  camps  near  the  Overman  Mine.  The  column  halted, 
and  the  sheriff  of  Storey  County  seized  the  opportunity  to  read  a  procla- 
mation to  the  men  commanding  them  to  disperse.  The  president  of  the 
Gold  Hill  Miners'  Union  replied,  urbanely,  that  the  unions  would  obey  the 
order  as  soon  as  they  had  done  what  they  "had  started  in  to  do;"  where- 
upon his  followers  cheered  so  loudly  that  the  deputy  sheriff  proceeded  to 
read  the  riot  act.  When  he  had  finished  reading  three  cheers  were  given 
for  the  "United  States,"  and  the  miners  marched  away  laughing,  while  a 
drummer  beat  a  lively  quickstep  and  a  fifer  blew  defiantly.  To  such  men 
proclamations  and  riot  acts  were  as  idle  wind.  Everywhere,  as  they 
approached,  the  Chinese  threw  down  their  spades  and  picks,  ran  to  their 
huts,  gathered  up  their  baggage  hastily,  and  deserted  their  camps,  many 
flying  to  the  nearest  hills.  Having  thus  routed  the  enemy  without  blood- 
shed, the  miners  returned  home  with  flying  colors.^  They  had  shown  the 
will  a,nd  the  power  to  override  the  law  on  the  Comstock  Lode  so  clearly 
that  no  one  thought  seriously  of  resisting  their  resolution,  and  though 
the  Chinese  returned  to  work,  after  a  compulsory  respite  of  eight  days,^ 
they  were  allowed  to  do  so  only  as  a  privilege  and  riot  as  a  right.  This 
concession  was  obtained  by  Mr.  Sharon,  after  an  earnest  and  forcible  plea 
to  the  members  of  the  unions,  setting  forth  the  benefits  which  they  would 
gain  from  the  completion  of  the  railroad,  and  showing  the  necessity  of 
employing  cheap  labor  in  its  construction.  "When  it  is  completed,"  said 
he,  "the  Chinese  are  no  longer  wanted  and  can  go;"  yet  he  only  carried 
his  point  by  signing  an  agreement  which  barred  him  from  employing 
Chinese  within  the  limits  of  Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill.^ 

It  is  evident  that  the  editor  of  the  Gold  Hill  News  was  not  far  wrong 

■  Gold  Hill  News,  September  29, 1869 ;  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  30,  1869. 
^  San  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  October  8,  1869. 
=  Gold  Hill  News,  October  7,  1869. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  WASHOE.  357 

in  calling  labor  king  in  Washoe,  and  no  one  revolted  openly  against  its 
rule.  By  the  encouragement  and  support  of  the  miners,  unions  of 
mechanics  were  built  up  and  maintained  until  all  branches  of  skilled 
labor  in  the  mines  and  on  the  surface  of  the  district  had  arbitrary  rates 
of  wages.  Naturally  the  miners'  unions  were  satisfied  with  their  position. 
They  feared  no  overt  attacks,  and  they  shrewdly  contrived  to  forestall  the 
action  of  the  mine  superintendents  which  had  sapped  the  foundations  of 
the  early  league.  As  soon  as  they  noticed  that  their  members  appeared 
to  be  in  disfavor  with  the  mine  managers,  and  were  gradually  discharged 
to  make  room  for  miners  who  were  not  union  men,  they  determined  to 
protect  themselves.^  Accordingly,  they  held  a  special  meeting  and  passed 
a  resolution  declaring  that  no  laborer  should  be  employed  in  any  mine 
of  the  district  longer  than  one  month,  unless  he  was  a  member  of  one  of 
their  unions.^  Thus  they  not  only  fixed  an  arbitrary  rate  of  pay,  but  they 
also  divided  the  whole  wages  fund  among  their  own  members.  The  latter 
ordinance  was  as  illegal  as  the  former  and  even  more  selfish,  but  from  the 
union  standpoint  it  was  undoubtedly  a  necessity.  Besides,  as  the  number 
of  their  members  was  not  limited,  and  they  admitted  all  worthy  applicants 
to  membership,  no  competent  miner  was  excluded  from  the  privileges  of 
the  unions,  and  they  have  never  prohibited  white  laborers  from  entering 
the  district.  It  is  true  that  they  have  sometimes  discouraged  immigra- 
tion, but  only  at  periods  when  many  of  their  own  members  were  idle  and 
even  obliged  to  leave  the  district  in  search  of  employment. 

From  the  stand-point  which  the  members  of  these  unions  occupy,  of 
personal  interest  exclusively,  their  course  in  exacting  the  highest  possible 
payment  for  their  services  was  probably  sagacious.  They  had  the  will 
and  the  power  to  be  selfish,  and  they  have  succeeded  in  maintaining  their 
income  unimpaired,  while  laborers  in  other  districts  have  been  obliged  to 
accept  lower  wages.  They  style  their  domineering  requisition  the  main- 
tenance of  the  principle  that  a  fair  day's  wages  should  always  be  paid  for 
a  fair  day's  work,  apparently  ignoring  the  fact  that  they  have  constituted 
themselves  sole  judges  of  their  own  claims  and  sole  arbiters  to  fix  the 

'  B.  Colgan,  Secretary  of  the  Miners'  Union,  Virginia  City,  1880. 

5  Territorial  Enterprise,  September  7,  1877.     Order  took  eifect  September  10,  1877. 


358  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

amount  of  a  fair  day's  wages.  Four  dollars  per  day  may  be  fair  wages,  as 
they  assert,  but  no  laborer  has  a  right  to  compel  his  employer  to  pay  this, 
or  any  other  fixed  sum  which  he  may  see  fit  to  name,  as  suitable  compen- 
sation for  his  services.  The  miners'  unions  on  the  Gomstock  Lode  are 
unworthy  champions  of  the  labor  cause,  for  they  substitute  might  for 
right,  and  place  personal  interest  in  the  room  of  justice.  There  is  no 
question  here  of  self-preservation,  but  rather  of  self-aggrandizement,  and 
it  is  a  disgrace  to  the  Washoe  district  that  such  despotism  should  have 
existed  within  its  limits  for  fourteen  years  without  one  effective  revolt. 
Their  unwarrantable  action,  however,  has  made  the  Gomstock  Mines  a 
most  interesting  field  of  industry  to  the  student  of  political  economy. 

An  authorized  spokesman  of  the  union  defends  the  arbitrary  reduc- 
tion of  the  best  workmen  to  the  level  of  the  poorest  on  the  common  plea 
that  any  laborer  who  is  fit  to  work  in  the  mine  levels  deserves  to  receive 
four  dollars  per  day,  and  if  the  ablest  miners  cannot  command  larger 
wages  the  unions  cannot  be  justly  reproached.  If  the  arbitrary  standard 
was  abolished,  he  did  not  believe  that  the  wages  of  any  would  be  increased, 
but  was  confident  that  the  pay  of  the  majority  would  be  diminished.  It 
was  true  that  the  number  of  employes  might  be  enlarged  in  this  event, 
but  he  did  not  consider  the  benefit  to  the  additional  force  thus  hired  a 
sufficient  offset  to  the  injury  which  the  working  body  of  miners  would 
suffer.  The  unregulated  operation  of  the  law  of  supply  and  demand 
tended,  in  his  judgment,  to  the  certain  degradation  of  the  laboring  classes, 
and  if  the  artificial  barrier  built  up  by  the  unions  was  once  thrown  down, 
it  was  impossible  to  predict  how  urgent  the  demand  for  cheap  labor  might 
be.  When  the  mines  were  unproductive,  their  managers  would  probably 
hire  the  cheapest  labor  in  the  market,  and  an  influx  of  Ghinese  might 
drive  the  white  miners  from  the  district.^  This  plea  is  evidently  an  excuse 
for  the  position  taken  by  the  union  rather  than  a  vahd  defense  of  it.  Any 
laborer  in  this  country,  of  whatever  color  or  race  he  may  be,  has  a  right 
to  offer  his  services  at  any  price,  and  no  man  or  body  of  men  can  justly 
deny  him  this  privilege;  nor  can  an  employer  be  lawfully  prohibited  from 
using  his  own  discretion  in  the  selection  of  laborers.     It  is  idle  to  dispute 

'  B.  Colgan,  Secretary  of  the  Miners'  Union,  Virginia  City. 


THE  LABOEEES  OF  WASHOE.  359 

these  propositions  or  to  defend  any  trade  union  which  contravenes  them. 
Sympathy  should  never  be  a  cloak  for  injustice.  It  is  one  thing  to  abet 
all  clear-sighted  endeavors  to  improve  the  condition  of  the  laboring 
classes,  to  urge  the  extension  of  education,  to  foster  an  honorable  pride, 
to  identify  more  closely  the  interests  of  employers  and  workmen,  to  press 
the  reference  of  disputes  to  competent  arbitration,  to  support  well-planned 
"strikes"  as  a  last  resort,  and  even  to  limit  immigration  by  legislative 
action;  but  it  is  a  very  different  thing  for  a  partisan  guild  to  fix  their  own 
wages,  brow-beat  their  employers,  and  exclude  other  laborers  from  the 
district  which  they  control.  Yet  this  is  precisely  what  the  miners'  unions 
of  Washoe  have  done. 

The  conditions  which  have  made  feasible  the  maintenance  of  an 
arbitrary  standard  of  wages,  the  effect  on  the  development  of  the  lode 
thereby  occasioned,  and  the  comparative  condition  of  the  body  of  miners 
thus  paid  deserve  careful  consideration. 

Why  is  it  that  the  miners'  unions  on  the  Comstock  Lode  have  been 
able  to  secure  and  maintain  a  rate  of  wages  largely  in  excess  of  that  paid 
in  most  districts  of  the  Great  Basin  and  Pacific  slope?  A  number  of 
causes  have  contributed  to  this  result.  The  mines  were  discovered  at  a 
time  when  wages  on  the  Pacific  coast  were  higher  than  they  are  at  present, 
and  the  payment  of  four  dollars  per  day  to  an  ordinary  laborer  was  not 
exceptional  in  districts  where  the  cost  of  living  was  as  great  as  it  was  in 
Washoe  in  1860.  During  the  years  which  followed  custom  confirmed 
this  rate,  as  surrounding  districts  were  yet  unexplored,  and  men  who 
could  not  obtain  employment  at  these  wages  in  the  Comstock  Mines 
wandered  off  to  other  fields,  where  the  promise  of  equal  or  better  returns 
attracted  them.  While  other  mining  districts  had  usually  a  short-lived 
prosperity,  the  Comstock  Lode  remained  continuously  productive,  and  it 
was  possible  to  build  up  there  a  miners'  union  which  would  not  be 
dissolved  in  a  few  years  by  the  necessities  of  adversity.  The  compar- 
ative stability  of  the  district  permitted,  therefore,  the  continuance  of  a 
rate  which  owed  its  origin  to  a  temporary  relation  between  the  labor 
supply  and  demand.  Now  the  ore-bodies  of  the  productive  mines  were 
so  concentrated  and  rich  that  the  margin  of  profit  was  great  even  when 


360  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

the  extraordinary  cost  of  extraction  was  deducted,  and  their  owners  could 
afford  to  pay  the  wages  demanded;  but  with  the  barren  mines  of  the  lode 
the  case  was  different.  Here  there  was  no  return  for  the  outlay  of  capital, 
and  stockholders  could  not  fairly  be  expected  to  pay  exceptional  wages; 
yet  as  the  connection  between  the  productive  and  barren  mines  was  so 
close,  a  rate  which  the  former  could  alone  afford  to  give  was  exacted  from 
the  latter  without  any  basis  of  justice,  but  simply  through  the  chance 
relation  of  proximity;  for  it  was  repeatedly  demonstrated  that  the  occur- 
rence of  an  ore-body  in  one  section  of  the  lode  afforded  no  assurance 
that  a  similar  body  would  be  found  in  another  section,  and  to  prospect  a 
barren  mine  at  an  exorbitant  cost  is  a  rash  speculation  wherever  the  mine 
may  be  located.  If  the  owners  of  the  barren  mines  had  been  ordinary 
men  of  business  they  would  not  have  submitted  to  this  unreasonable  tax, 
but  would  have  obtained  a  readjustment  of  wages  or  discontinued  their 
profitless  undertaking.  If  no  work  had  been  done  in  the  barren  mines 
except  as  much  as  was  requisite  in  order  to  retain  a  clear  title,  the  up- 
holders of  an  arbitrary  standard  of  wages  would  have  realized  their  mis- 
take. Some  extremists  rashly  challenged. this  measure  by  asserting,  like 
the  editor  of  the  Enterprise,  August  16,  1864,^  that  the  miners  could  better 
afford  to  see  the  mines  closed  than  to  submit  to  a  reduction  of  their 
wages.  This  was  sheer  folly,  for  labor  has  no  right  to  demand  that  all 
the  risks  and  sacrifices  shall  be  borne  by  capital,  and  this  concession  can 
only  be  extorted  under  exceptional  circumstances.  Such  exceptional 
conditions  existed  in  the  Washoe  district,  because  the  silver  and  gold 
mining  industry  differs  from  all  other  industries  in  the  magnitude  of  its 
risks  and  rewards,  and  because  the  body  of  shareholders  in  the  Comstock 
mines  had  peculiar  notions  in  regard  to  the  management  of  their  property. 
Mining  is,  perhaps,  the  only  business  pursuit  in  which  men  stake 
large  fortunes  on  the  acquisition  of  prizes  against  the  balance  of  proba- 
bilities. It  is  certainly  the  only  business  undertaking  where  skill,  energy, 
foresight,  and  industry,  aided  by  ample  capital,  will  not  command  a 
measure  of  success.  The  distribution  of  ore-bodies  in  a  lode  cannot  be 
determined  in  advance  of  their  discovery,  and  until  the  unseen  bonanza  is 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  16, 1864. 


THE  LABOEEES  OF  WASHOE. 


361 


pierced  the  most  systematic  and  persistent  search  is  based  on  sanguine 
hopes  rather  than  reason.  When  men  are  gambling  thus  daringly,  ordi- 
nary economies  of  business  management  are  often  looked  upon  as  petty 
details.  A  penny  saved  is  by  no  means  the  same  to  them  as  a  pound 
earned.  The  risks  which  they  brave  are  so  great  that  they  value  lightly 
the  expedients  of  prudence,  and  they  do  not  always  demand,  therefore, 
that  the  laborers  in  their  employ  should  contribute  in  any  way  to  lessen 
their  loss  when  their  outlay  continues  without  return.  Yet  such  a  con- 
tribution in  the  form  of  reduced  wages  would  not  be  an  unfair  exaction, 
as  the  laborer  shares  none  of  the  risk  and  reaps  a  share  of  the  benefit  in 
the  form  of  profitable  employment  if  an  ore-body  by  chance  is  laid  open. 
In  the  case  in  question  of  the  laborers  in  the  Comstock  mines,  no  reduc- 
tion of  wages  strictly  speaking  was  called  for. 

It  was  clearly  pointed  out  by  the  president  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross 
Mining  Company,  in  his  report  to  the  stockholders  for  the  fiscal  year  end- 
ing March  2,  1871,  that  no  undue  advantage  was  sought  by  the  capitalists 
in  urging  a  readjustment  of  wages  after  the  completion  of  the  Virginia 
&  Truckee  Railroad,  for  the  cost  of  supplies  was  so  materially  diminished 
by  the  new  freight  tariff  that  everything  required  for  domestic  comfort 
could  be  had  at  prices  varying  from  twenty  to  fifty  per  cent,  less  than  in 
the  early  years  of  mining  on  the  lode,  when  the  standard  of  wages  was 
established.  But  while  all  other  expenses  of  mining  had  been  reduced 
the  cost  of  labor  remained  disproportionately  high.  The  comparative 
figures  given  in  this  report  are  interesting. 


1867. 

1870. 

Reduction. 

Cost  of  timber  per  M 

Cost  of  wood  per  cord 

Cost  of  milling  per  ton 

Total 

$31. 32 
15.05 
14.21 

$21.32 
11.33 
11. 16i 

$43.  81i 

31. 92  per  cent 
24. 71  per  cent. 
21. 42  per  cent. 

27. 67  per  cent. 

$60.  58 

Yield  of  ore  per  ton 

Coat  of  labor  per  day 

$34. 14 
4.00 

$25. 13 
4.00 

26. 10  per  cent. 

The  decline  in  the  value  of  the  ore  per  ton  was  so  marked  that 
unless  the  cost  of  production  had  fallen  correspondingly,  the  operations 


362 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 


for  the  years  1870  would  have  been  carried  on  at  a  loss.  Comparison 
between  the  reports  for  the  years  1866  and  1870  is  instructive,  as  the 
profits  of  stockholders  during  each  year  were  nearly  the  same. 


1866. 

1870. 

Number  of  tons  reduced  ........... 

28,635im 

$47. 32 

29.67 

$490, 000. 00 

64.974^r«87 

$2.5. 13 

18.64 

$536,000,00 

Average  value  per  ton .   .--., 

Cost  of  production  per  ton  ' 

Aggregate  dividends,  profit 

>  Including  office  and  contingent  expenses. 

It  is  evident  by  this  official  showing  that  if  the  cost  of  production 
had  not  decreased  $11.03  per  ton,  or  37r5V  per  cent.,  the  trustees  of  the 
Hale  &  Norcross  Company  must  have  called  for  assessments  amounting 
to  $294,982.14  in  1870,  instead  of  paying  the  dividends  declared,  or  in 
other  words,  that  a  saving  of  $830,982.14  was  thereby  effected;  but  in  this 
saving,  as  Mr.  Flood  declared,  "labor  could  claim  no  participation;"  for  it 
was  clearly  brought  about  by  more  economical  management  and  the  aid 
of  the  railroad  company.  Yet  it  was  argued,  in  face  of  this  showing,  that 
the  profits  of  stockholders  were  still  so  large,  equaling  an  average  monthly 
interest  of  over  5 J  per  cent,  on  the  accepted  value  of  their  shares,  $100, 
that  no  reduction  of  wages  was  necessary  or  just.  To  this  plea  Mr.  Flood 
opposed  an  effective  rejoinder  in  the  following  summary: 

Considering  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine  a  fair  representative  of  the 
better  class  of  productive  mines,  which  it  assuredly  was,  he  compared  an 
investment  in  the  shares  of  this  mine  with  an  investment  in  real  estate, 
viz :  Assuming  the  average  value  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  stock  to  be  $100 
per  share,  the  value  of  the  mine  would  be  $800,000. 

This  amount,  invested  in  real  estate  in  1861,  when  the  company  was  incor- 
porated, at  1  per  cent,  per  month/  would  give  in  ten  years,  as  a  return  for 

the  investment $960,000 

Contra. 

Dividends  paid  by  Hale  &  Norcross  Company $1,618,000 

Less  assessments  collected 610,000 

Net  profits  of  the  company  in  ten  years $908,000 

Balance  in  favor  of  real  estate $52, 000 

*  The  ordinary  rate  in  California. 


THE  LABOEERS  OF  WASHOE.  363 

He  further  urged,  with  great  force,  that  while  real  estate  nearly 
always  increased  in  value  with  lapse  of  years,  mining  property  became 
more  exhausted  and  less  valuable,  until,  finally,  the  cost  of  production 
would  exceed  the  yield,  and  the  property  would  be  necessarily  abandoned. 
This  plain  business  statement  cannot  be  confuted,  and  its  apparent  con- 
clusion was  emphasized  by  the  subsequent  record  of  the  mine,  for  only 
one  dividend  has  been  paid  since  the  president  presented  this  report,  and 
this,  a  small  one  of  |80,000  in  1871,  was  offset  during  the  same  fiscal 
year  by  three  assessments  aggregating  $200,000.  Since  1871  the  mine 
shares  have  been  merely  a  speculative  investment.  It  is  true  that  a 
better  showing  might  be  made  in  the  encouragement  of  mining  invest- 
ments, and  justly,  also,  by  presenting  the  same  figures,  as  follows : 

Amount  paid  for  mining  claim  by  capitalists  forming  the  Hale  &  Norcross 

Mining  Company,  in  1861 $20,  000' 

Amount  of  assessments  paid,  1861  to  1871  (1  to  33) 610,  000 

630,000 

Dividends  paid,  1861  to  1871 1,518,  000 

Profit $888,  000 

Equal  to  440  per  cent,  annually  on  the  original  investment;  or,  assuming  that  the  assess- 
ments (1  to  29)  were  paid  at  the  rate  of  $70,000  annually  during  the  five  years,  1861  to 
1865,  inclusive  ($350,000  having  been  paid  during  fiscal  years  from  date  of  organization 
of  company  until  March  20, 1866),^  the  profit  in  dividends  would  be  more  than  23  per  cent, 
annually  upon  the  original  investment,  with  its  successive  additions,  viz: 

Interest  on  $20,000  (original  investment)  for  10  years,  at  23  per  cent $46,  000 

Aisessments  1  to  29,  from  1S61  to  1866. 

Interest  on  $70,000  for  10  years,  at  23  per  cent. 161,  000 

Interest  on  $70,000  for  9  years,  at  23  per  cent 144,900 

Interest  on  $70,000  for  8  years,  at  23  per  cent 128,800 

Interest  on  $70,000  for  7  years,  at  23  per  cent.' 112,700 

Interest  on  $70,000  for  6  years,  at  23  per  cent. 96,  600 

Assessment  30,  levied  in  1867.' 

Interest  on  $60,000  for  4  years,  at  23  per  cent 55,  200 

Assessments  31,  32,  33,  levied  in  1868.* 

Interest  on  $200,000  for  3  years,  at  23  percent 138,  000 

Total $883,  200 

•  A  liberal  estimate.  "  Sixth  Annual  Report,  Hale  &  Norcross  Silver  Mining  Company,  1867,  p.  5. 

3  Seventh  Annual  Report,  p.  14.     Ibid.  *  Eighth  Annual  Report,  p.  18.    Ibid. 


364  HISTORY  OF  THE  OOMSTOOK  LODE. 

In  this  account,  moreover,  no  allowance  is  made  for  interest  accruing 
upon  the  dividends  from  date  of  payment,  which  would  considerably  increase 
the  percentage  of  profit.  It  is  immaterial,  however,  in  this  connection, 
whether  the  original  stockholders  had  derived  12  or  23  per  cent,  from 
their  investment.  The  question  at  issue  in  1871  was  whether  the  pros- 
pective profits  would  justify  stockholders  in  paying  more  than  the  market 
rates  for  labor,  at  the  dictation  of  the  Miners'  Union.  Upon  a  fair 
examination  of  the  condition  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine  in  1871,  this 
question  must  be  answered  in  the  negative.  Prudent  and  independent 
mine-owners  would  have  insisted  upon  a  readjustment  of  wages,  and 
have  closed  their  mine,  if  necessary,  to  enforce  their  demand ;  but  the 
shareholders  in  the  Comstcck  Mines  have  been,  as  a  body,  reckless  stock- 
speculators  rather  than  prudent  mine-owners.  The  idea  of  overseeing 
the  management  of  their  property  or  inspecting  closely  its  details  rarely 
entered  their  minds;  and  if  this  duty  was  suggested  to  them  they  shunned 
its  discharge  as  an  irksome  and  preposterous  task.  They  were  not 
buying  mines  daily  in  the  exchanges,  but  mining-stocks — a  very  different 
purchase  in  their  eyes.  They  desired  to  manage  stocks,  to  control  their 
rise  and  fall,  and  to  create  fictitious  rather  than  real  values.  To  produce 
paper  bonanzas  was  easier  and  pleasanter  work  than  to  delve  for  ore- 
bodies  ;  so  they  shook  off  the  burdens  of  mining  as  far  as  possible  upon 
the  shoulders  of  others,  and  while  they  could  blow  and  break  bubbles 
cared  little  for  the  true  interests  of  the  Comstock  Lode.  As  long  as 
stock-gaming  was  active  in  San  Francisco  the  gamblers  did  not  concern 
themselves  about  such  unimportant  matters  as  the  mismanagement  of 
their  mining  property  or  the  proper  wages  of  their  employes.  They 
did  riot  know  whether  the  pay  was  too  high  or  too  low  for  the  service 
rendered,  and  did  not  care  to  inform  themselves.  When  assessments 
were  levied  the  tax  was  paid  with  the  sanff  froid  of  gamesters  whose 
ventures  are  unsuccessful.  Owing  to  the  wide  distribution  of  the  stock 
shares,  dividends  from  a  productive  mine  might  offset  assessments 
levied  to  develop  a  barren  one,  and  the  burden  of  taxation  was  thus  less 
onerous.  Through  this  division  of  profits  and  losses  the  evil  effects  of 
waste  and  extravagance  in  the  conduct  of  the  mines  were  felt  less  acutely 


THE  LABORERS  OP  WASHOE.  365 

by  individual  owners,  and  a  rate  of  wages  for  labor  in  barren  mines  was 
maintained  which  would  otherwise  have  been  impracticable.  Wages  were 
sustained,  also,  like  other  expenses,  by  reason  of  the  common  speculative 
fallacy  which  raised  the  price  of  all  mines  on  the  lode  whenever  a  new 
ore-body  was  discovered  in  any  section.  Distant  sections  were  in  reality 
no  more  valuable,  but  they  were  held  in  higher  esteem,  and  it  was  possi- 
ble to  levy  assessments  which  before  would  have  been  futile  appeals  for 
funds.  To  these  props  of  the  artificial  standard  should  be  added  one 
without  which  the  others  would  probably  have  been  insufficient  —  the 
moneyed  power  which  carried  the  mines  through  the  gloomy  season  of 
1870 — the  Bank  of  California  and  its  successor  as  the  controlling  influence 
in  the  district,  the  chief  stay  of  the  depressed  fortunes  of  the  lode  ten  years 
later,  the  firm  of  Mackey  &  Fair.  In  the  combination  of  these  conditions 
and  agencies  will  be  found  the  key  to  the  strength  of  the  position  held  so 
long  by  the  miners'  unions.  * 

It  remains  to  examine  what  effect  this  arbitrary  standard  of  wages  has 
had  upon  mining  operations  in  the  Comstock  Lode.  It  can  scarcely  be 
doubted  that  the  development  of  the  mines  has  been  impeded  by  the 
exceptional  cost  of  labor,  and  the  profits  of  the  mine-owners  have  cer- 
tainly been  reduced  in  consequence ;  yet  it  is  an  open  question  whether 
these  local  and  personal  injuries  have  not  been  offset  by  the  impulse 
given  to  mining  science  under  the  pressure  of  an  urgent  demand  for 
labor-saving  and  cheaply-effective  machinery.  Whenever  the  rate  of  wages 
is  unusually  high  machinery  will  be  substituted  for  men  as  far  as  possible. 
The  miners'  unions  which  forbade  the  employment  of  cheap  labor  did 
not  prohibit  the  use  of  the  power-drill,  and  the  superintendents  who 
could  not  hire  Chinese  miners  made  cheap  servants  of  steam,  compressed 
air,  and  dynamite.  The  heart  of  the  lode,  pricked  slowly  by  hand-drills 
in  early  years,  was  pierced  through  and  through  by  the  diamond-pointed 
rods  which  sounded  the  gangue  in  all  directions,  as  plummet-lines  deter- 
mine the  extent  and  depth  of  a  water -channel.  The  first  power-drill 
used  in  the  mines  was  manufactured  by  Hotchkiss  &  Gardner,  and  put  in 
operation  by  the  Chollar-Potosi  Mining  Company;^    but  there  is  little 

'  Andrew  Fraser,  County  Commissioner,  Virginia  City,  Nevada,  1880. 


366  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

question  that  the  serviceabihty  of  these  drills  was  first  demonstrated  in 
the  Washoe  district  by  the  Sutro  Tunnel  Company.  By  the  aid  of  these 
drills  the  heading  was  advanced  nearly  three  times  as  rapidly  as  it  had 
been  excavated  by  hand-labor  under  more  favorable  conditions,  and  the 
cost  per  cubic  foot  of  rock  removed  was  materially  diminished.^  The 
progress  in  sinking  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  shaft,  218  square  feet  in  area,^ 
is  an  illustration  of  the  service  of  these  drills  in  driving  a  heading  verti- 
cally. The  work  was  not  specially  pressed,  yet  the  shaft  attained  the 
depth  of  2,250  feet  in  twenty-eight  months,*  showing  an  advance  of  81  i 
feet  per  month.* 

In  the  Spring  of  1868  giant-powder  cartridges  were  tried  in  the  Gould  & 
Curry  Mine  with  and  without  tamping,  but,  from  some  cause,  proved  unsatis- 
factory, not  rending  the  rock  as  well  as  ordinary  blasting-powder.^  This 
early  failure  was  due,  in  all  probability,  to  the  character  of  the  rock  or 
inexperience  in  the  use  of  dynamite,  for,  a  few  months  later,  a  very  favor- 
able report  of  its  serviceability  was  given.®  The  miners  had  become 
expert  in  inserting  the  cartridges  properly,  and  in  blasting  the  hard  rock 
which  the  Ophir  Mine  shaft  was  then  piercing  its  superiority  was  evident. 
Thenceforward,  in  general  prospecting  work,  dynamite  in  the  form  of 
giant  and  Hercules  powder  has  commonly  been  used,  though  for  rending 
decomposed  ore  ordinary  blasting-powder  is  preferred.  Efforts  were 
made,  also,  to  utilize  electricity  in  various  ways,  but  with  only  partial 
success.  The  first  under-ground  wire  line  in  the  mines  was  laid  in  April, 
1868,  through  the  shaft  of  the  Savage  Mining  Company,  and  used  for 
striking  signal-bells  in  the  hoisting-works.  Connection  was  made  with 
every  station  in  the  shaft,  and  signals  sounded  by  pulling  a  ring  attached 

'  Rate  of  progress  by  hand-labor,  3.30  feet  per  working  day  since  the  work  of  excavation  was  begun.  Rate 
of  progress  by  machiue-drilling,  9.54  feet  per  day  from  date  of  actual  substitution  of  machine  for  hand-drilling. 
Relative  area  of  heading-face,  50  square  ftet  (for  five-sixths  of  the  total  length  driven  by  band-drills) :  123J 
square  feet. — Geo.  J.  Specht,  C.  E.,  Sutro  Tunnel  Company. 

^  Albert  Williams,  jr..  Special  Agent,  Tenth  Census,  1880. 

'  Begun  October  7,  1876. 

■*  John  A.  Church,  E.  M.;  The  Comstock  Lode,  p.  14. 

'Territorial  Enterprise,  April  18, 1868. 

'Ibid.,  July  19,  1868. 


THE  LABOEERS  OP  WASHOE,  357 

■^0  a  hanging  wire.^  It  was  found,  however,  that  the  apparatus  could  not 
be  relied  upon  with  certainty  at  all  times,  and  it  was  replaced  by  the  ordi- 
nary bell-cord.  For  exploding  cartridges  electric  batteries  are  sometimes 
used,  but^xcept  in  the  Sutro  Tunnel,  where  it  was  desirable  to  explode  a 
considerable  number  of  cartridges  simultaneously,  the  electric  spark  has 
not  commonly  been  substituted  for  the  time-fuse. 

The  most  important  saving  has  been  made  in  perfecting  the  hoisting 
and  pumping  engines.  Although  the  flume -lines  and  railroad  have 
poured  a  constant  supply  of  fuel  into  the  mines  the  cost  of  wood  has 
been  a  principal  item  of  expense,  and  unremitting  efforts  have  been  made 
to  increase  the  efficiency  of  the  fuel  consumed.  No  noteworthy  improve- 
ment has  yet  been  made  in  boiler-setting,^  though  various  devices  have 
been  tried  repeatedly;  but  by  the  enlargement  of  the  working-plant  a 
considerable  saving  has  been  effected,  as  large  machinery,  in  most  in- 
stances, requires  less  fuel  in  proportion  to  the  power  developed  than 
lighter  machinery.  The  extraordinary  duty  imposed  upon  the  pumping- 
engines  has  been  noted  already.  Those  constructed  during  the  past  six 
years,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  have  been  compound  engines,  with  the 
Davy  differential-valve  gear,  modified  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Patton.*  In  1875  the 
first  direct-acting  hoisting-engine  was  erected  upon  the  lode  by  W.  H. 
Patton,  constructing  engineer  for  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mine;  and 
since  that  year  several  similar  engines  have  been  placed  at  different  shafts 
on  the  line  of  the  lode.  As  the  cable-reels  are  keyed  to  the  main  shafts 
of  these  engines  it  is  evident  that  cages  can  be  hoisted  and  lowered  more 
rapidly  than  when  geared  shafting  is  used.  The  hoisting-speed  has  been 
increased  to  from  30  to  35  feet  per  second,  and  the  direct-acting  engines 
at  the  C.  &  C.  shaft  can  lift  at  an  average  rate  of  45  feet  per  second,  or 
2,700  feet  per  minute,  if  necessary.*  This  rate  is  from  five  to  six  times 
greater  than  that  attained  in  1866,  and  nearly  double  that  reached  by  the 
geared  engines  still  in  use  at  some  shafts.  In  several  of  the  shafts  ore 
and  waste  are  raised  to  the  surface  in  self-dumping  skips  or  ore-buckets 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  5,  9,  1868. 

2  W.  E.  Eckart,  C.  E. 

=  "  The  Cometock  Lode,"  p.  16 ;  Jolin  A.  Church,  E.  M. 

■■W.E.  Eckart,  C.  E. 


368  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

called  "skeets,"  holding  4J  tons.^  By  the  substitution  of  these  skeets  for 
the  heavy  four -decker  cages  the  dead -weight  which  must  be  lifted  is 
considerably  diminished,  and  the  labor  of  handling  the  cars  at  the  surface 
is  also  saved.  , 

The  maintenance  of  a  relatively  high  rate  of  wages  has  been  advan- 
tageous, of  course,  to  the  body  of  working  miners  of  the  union.  Discharged 
and  unemployed  men  have  suffered  from  time  to  time  during  periods  when 
the  mining  industry  was  depressed,  but,  owing  to  causes  before  stated, 
the  wages  fund  has  been  lavishly  supplied  since  the  opening  of  the  mines, 
and  seasons  of  grave  distress  have  been  short  until  recently.  A  careful 
comparison  shows  that  there  is  no  mining  district  in  the  world  where  the 
general  condition  of  the  laboring  class  has  been  better  during  the  past 
twenty  years  than  on  the  Comstock  Lode.  Nowhere  has  so  large  a  guild 
been  their  own  paymasters  for  so  long  a  time,  and  in  no  mining  district  are 
more  varied  and  excellent  supplies  offered  for  sale  to  men  who  can  afford 
to  buy,  not  only  the  necessaries  of  life,  but  its  luxuries  as  well.  Choice 
cattle,  fatted  on  the  succulent  grasses  of  the  Truckee  meadows,  are  slaugh- 
tered for  their  tables.  Fresh  vegetables  from  the  valley  of  the  Carson 
are  brought  daily  in  their  season  to  the  mines.  Venison  from  the  sierran 
foot-hills,  plump  wild-fowl  from  the  Californian  estuaries,  and  fish,  which 
twenty-four  hours  before  had  been  swimming  in  sea  or  river,  can  be  seen  in 
profusion  on  the  market  stands  of  Virginia  City.  Strawberries,  apricots, 
pears,  peaches,  grapes,  apples,  figs,  and  all  other  products  of  the  luxuriant 
gardens  and  vineyards  which  are  the  boast  of  the  Pacific  seaboard  cover 
the  counters  of  the  open  stalls  in  luscious  heaps.  The  demand  of  mon- 
eyed customers  has  made  the  Virginia  and  Truckee  Railroad  an  unfailing 
cornucopia  of  dainties. 

The  following  table  of  supplies  brought  by  rail  to  Virginia  City 
and  Gold  Hill  during  the  years  1876  and  1879  gives  the  most  accurate 
information  in  regard  to  the  quantity  and  quality  of  food  consumed  : 

'  The  invention  of  Mr.  I.  L.  Requa,  Superintendent  of  the  Chollar  Mining  Company ;  "  The  Comstock 
Lode,"  John  A.  Church,  E.  M.,  p.  16. 


THE  LABOEEES  OF  WASHOE. 


369 


Apples  - 


Bacon 

Butter. 

Crackers 

Coffee 

Cheeae  

Candles 

Candy 

Canned  goods- 
Eggs 

Dried  fruit 

Oranges 

Pears  

Vegetables 

Flour  

Ham 

Hops 

Lard 

Lemuns 

Limes 

Fruit 

Grapes 

Milk 

Potatoes 

Pickles 

Castor  oil 

Oliye  oil 

Linseed  oil 

Onions 

Rice 

Sugar 


Tea 

Tobacco 

Cigars 

Boots  and  shoes. 

Clothing 

Dry  goods 

Hats  and  caps—. 

Furniture 

Glassware 

Hardware 


Lbs. 

637, 157 

97,368 

157,565 

354, 167 

187,013 

161,413 

96, 231 

487,007 

69, 840 

968, 626 

1,045,019 

118,414 

65,823 

00,225 

1,140,328 

4,002,657 

490, 901 

63,166 

215,499 

11,662 

43, 627 

2,129,716 

77,546 

7,950 

2,642,138 

89,413 

28,624 

18,202 

126, 997 

202,590 

331,526 

1,313,367 

195,700 

101, 878 

126,860 

111,580 

162, 123 

82, 362 

177,048 

16,653 

1,694,719 

433,007 

1, 617, 191 


Lbs. 

705, 077 

114, 103 

112,947 

326, 854 

199, 819 

170, 119 

78, 141 

671,477 

62,960 

686,696 

823, 176 

158, 142 

153,125 

30, 872 

^07,072 

3,445,623 

660, 116 

13, 936 

201,161 

16, 924 

52, 390 

1,174,598 

105, 152 

266, 870 

715, 684 

113,137 

12,982 

13,265 

19,660 

69,836 

334,529 

114,529 

1,143,629 

110,549 

97,999 

87,464 

123,104 

160, 621 

270, 845 

17, 977 

326, 541 

126, 173 

1,526,554 


Lbs. 

48,451 

27,494 

41, 614 

99,080 

67,006 

33,528 

20,883 

330,759 
19, 328 

286,755 

123, 021 
31,488 
10,325 
19, 600 

149, 359 
1,110,893 

121,329 
4,996 
64,134 
1,897 
4,913 

187, 660 

4,980 

745 

341,403 
29,832 
20,645 
5,786 
17,668 
27,741 
69, 396 

355, 113 
65, 791 
30, 210 
30, 867 
28,641 
36,381 
40,530 
77,236 
6,670 

144,291 
65,893 

369,877 


Lbs. 

84,210 

10,348 

26, 240 

42, 827 

39, 789 

24, 495 

11,004 

163, 616 

11,624 

138,436 

108,347 

14, 125 

8,885 

3,411 

93,688 

607,977 

84,186 

3,534 

64, 678 

2,216 

2,075 

217,955 

8,614 

240 

140, 806 

10,437 

7,930 

2,176 

11,738 

9,590 

65, 620 

178, 619 

16,300 

17,399 

14, 687 

12, 037 

19,030 

12, 660 

74,065 

2,645 

68,100 

64,917 

249,173 


Articles. 


Stoves 

Organs 

Pianos 

Sewing  mach's- 
Kubber  goods- 
Beer  

Cider 

Ale 

Porter 

Claret 

Port 

Champagne 

Sherry 

Brandy 

Bitters  

"Wines 

Gin 

Rum 

Whisky 

Spirits 

Miscel's  liquors 

Vermouth 

Calves 

Fish 

Hogs 

Poultry 

Pork 

Oysters 

Fuse 

Mining  mach'y 

Powder 

Nails 

Nuts 

Shovels 

Pipe 

Iron 

Matches 

Coal  oil 

Lard  oil 

Lubricating  oil . 

Nut  oil 

Miscellanys  oil  _. 
Steel 


Lbs. 

220, 690 

12,426 

75, 965 

61,897 

81,239 

1, 187, 698 

92, 770 

202, 251 

188, 061 

95, 073 

30,000 

80,387 

25,118 

106,472 

35,818 

364, 309 

60, 370 

23, 853 

819, 197 

48,510 

217,536 

8,925 

143,483 

304,309 

997,578 

316,590 

64,766 

88,735 

32,986 

6,723,265 

341,952 

779,323 

43,058 

35, 128 

1,453,760 

6, 257, 929 

12,904 

619,511 

333,105 

30,215 

9,925 

240,240 

231,673 


S?5 

Kr-t 


Lbs. 

11,365 

6,060 

58,401 

32, 041 

45,217 

1,121,887 

65, 191 

84,321 

128, 551 

84,024 

12, 936 

•       50, 18D 

21, 467 

68,031 

41, 922 

194,061 

67,  671 

17,401 

716,732 

30, 695 

103,881 

385 

36,002 

309,630 

311,479 

214, 860 

109,096 

126,672 

43,720 

4, 609, 338 

435, 804 

293,217 

23, 162 

19, 882 

689,593 

1,485,044 

10, 390 

716, 722 

862,519 

68,080 


Lbs. 
29,978 


8,635 

8,200 

29, 296 

26,078 

20,305 

181,865 

46,060 

10, 106 

3,695 

3,805 

3,140 

31,736 

4,075 

68,248 

1.3,325 

4,000 

208,783 

6,819 

47,365 


1,642 

89,956 

183,510 

29,940 

15,226 

23,301 

11,115 

3,414,952 

125,664 

188, 867 

17,181 

21,632 

329,719 

2,399,421 

3,437 

232, 676 

81,934 

3,606 

670 

42,907 

184,022 


Lbs. 

19,168 
1,135 
3,240 
1,190 

18,658 
7,605 

13, 650 

33, 203 

28, 192 

6,025 

3,616 

900 

1,878 

10,964 
2,801 

20,236 

9,760 

4,190 

108,034 

2,940 


300 

5,030 

43,301 

183, 945 

21,763 

6,322 

13, 4112 

7,874 

1,301,017 

84, 615 

169, 225 

7,352 

9,369 

314,215 

888,276 

2,200 

131,965 

41,535 

66,959 


71, 282 
99,740 


Compiled  from  way-bills  of  Virginia  &  Tmckee  B.  B.  Company  by  Special  Agents  of  Tenth  Genaiu. 

The  supply  of  milk  is  largely  in  excess  of  the  figures  given  above,  for 
there  are  eleven  dairies  in  and  near  Virginia  City,  where  363  cows  were 
milked  daily  during  1880  for  the  service  of  the  towns  on  the  lode.  By 
these  dairies  about  900  gallons  of  milk  were  furnished  daily,  at  a  charge 
of  from  40  to  80  cents,  in  proportion  to  the  amount  consumed.  The 
average  cost  ranges  from  56  to  62i  cents,  and  a  large  quantity  is  delivered 
to  customers  by  the  pint  and  quart  at  $2.50  and  $4  dollars  per  month, 
respectively.  At  the  restaurants  of  Virginia  City,  22  in  number,  the  price 
of  board  per  week  ranges  from  |5  to  $10,  the  ordinary  rate  being  $1  per 
day.     The  food  served  is  of  excellent  quality  and  well  cooked. 


24  H  0 


370 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 


Prices  Current,  Virginia  City,  1880. 


Aeticleb. 


Peice. 


Articles. 


Price. 


Chickens per  doz.  _ 

Chickens single. 

Turkies per  lb._ 

Geese " 

Bucks each- 
Quail  per  doz.  _ 

Flour per  100  lbs.  - 

Corn  meal " 

Oatmeal " 

Buckwheat " 

Cracked  wheat " 

Cracked  hominy " 

Sugar,  crushed,  by  bbl per  lb.  - 


3.25 


"  "      by  box " 

Sugar,  yellow,  by  bbl " 

"  "       peri  bbl "      - 

Pork,  California per  i  bbl,  _ 

"      Eastern " 

"      per  lb.  _ 

Mackerel i  bbl,  _ 

"       kits. . 

"        6  to  8  for  . 

Lard,  Eastern 10-lb.  cans  . 

"         "        5-lb.    "    - 

Lard,  California 10-lb.    "    _ 

"  "        5-lb.    "    . 

Salt,  Eastern 50-lb.  sacks- 

"  20-lb.      "    . 

10-lb.      "    _ 

«        "  6-lb.      "    . 

"        "  3-lb.     "    - 

Cheese,  California,  wholesale per  lb.  _ 

"  "  retail "     _ 

Cheese,  Eastern,  wholesale " 

"  "      retail "     _ 

Oysters doe.  2-lb.  cans  _ 

"      6-lb.    "    _ 

Pie-fruit 1  doz.  cans,  8  lbs.  each  _ 

"        assorted per  case  _ 

Tomatoes 1  doz.  8-lb.  cans  _ 

"  2doz.2S-lb.     "    . 

Jellies,  assorted 2  doz.  2-lb.  "    _ 

Rice,  wholesale 100  lbs.  _ 

"      retail per  lb.  _, 

Sirup 5-gallon  kegs  _ 

"    1-gaUon      "    . 

Bacon,  Eastern 100  lbs.  _, 

"       California " 

Ham,  Dnpey per  lb,_. 

"      California " 

Cod-tish,  Eastern "     _, 

"         California "     .. 


$10.00 

to  1.00 

20 

to       30 

1,00 

1.75 

to  3.75 

4.00 

6.60 

7.50 

6.50 

7.60 

14i 

30 

13 

13i 

16,50 

16.50 

20 

16.60 

to   2,76 

1,00 

1,76 

87i 

1.50 

87i 

1.76 

62 

37i 

25 

15 

19 

25 

30 

40 

3.25 

1.00 

8.00 

6,26 

7.60 

5.00 

6.60 

11,00 

14 

6,00 

1,26 

18.00 

17.  OD 

18 

15 

lOi 

Si 


Salmon,  smoked per  lb.  _ 

"  canned per  doz.  cans- 

"  "     2f-lb. "  "  . 

Crackers,  soda per  lb.  _ 

"  butter "     . 

"  Boston "     _ 

Apples,  dried,  by  bbl "     _ 

"  "      retail 71bs.  _ 

Prunes per  lb.  _ 

Butter,  flrkin,  California  and  Nevada.    "    . 
"      fresh  roll 2-lb.  rolls- 
Potatoes  100  lbs.  _ 

Cabbage " 

CauUfiower per  doz.  _ 

Celery " 

Strawberries per  lb.  _ 

Blackberries " 

Raspberries " 

Apples " 

Cherries " 

Plums " 

Grapes " 

Pears " 

Peaches " 

Apricots " 

Beans 100  lbs,  _, 

Peas '* 

Pears,  dried , " 

Peas,  per  case 2  doz.  2-lb.  cans-. 

Corn       "        "  " 

Tea,  Japan per  lb,  -. 


"     English  breakfast " 

Coffee,  Java " 

"        Costa  Rica " 

Soap,  laundry per  box,  20  bars-. 

"      Castile per  lb,  _. 

Whisky per  gall,  -. 

Brandy " 

Gin,  Swan  brand " 

Port  Wine " 

Raisins,  California 20  lbs.  _. 

"       Malaga 26    "  .. 

Candles per  box.  _. 

Lobsters,  1-lb.  cans per  doz.  _. 

2-lb.    "   " 

Oranges " 

Limes ' " 

Lemons " 

Green  peas per  lb... 

Asparagus " 

Lettuce per  head- 
Tomatoes  per  lb— 


16  to 
12Ho 
12Ho 
3  to 
6  to 
6  to 
6    to 

5  to 

6  to 
6    to 


$00,12i 

2.50 

3.50 

8 

12 

12 

11 

1.00 

20 

32 

to   1.00 

2.00 

2.60 

1.50 

1.25 

35 

26 

25 

10 

26 

16 

10 

7 

25 

25 

5 


33    to 
l.OO    to 


2.00    to 
3.60    to 


G 

6.26 

5.26 

40 

1.25 

75 

30 

25 

1.00 

16 

6.00 

8.00 

5.00 

2.60    to   4.60 

3.60 

4.00 

3.25    to   4.00 

2.76 

3.26 

50 

25 

621 

20 

15 

25 


37ito 


THE  LABORERS  OF  WASHOE. 


371 


Prices  and  rents. 


Articles. 


Flour,  per  100  lbs 

Meal,  per  100  lbs 

Siifi;ar,  per  lb 

Butter,  fresh  roll,  per  lb. 

Butter,  firkin,  per  lb 

Coffee,  per  lb 

Tea,  per  lb 

Rice,  per  lb    

Beans,  per  lb 

Potatoes,  per  lb 

Dried  apples,  per  lb 

Codfish,  dried,  per  lb  — 

Bacon,  per  lb 

Salt  beef,  per  lb 

Fresh  beef,  per  lb 

Candles,  per  lb 

Blankets,  per  pair 

Liquors — 

Brandy,  per  gal 

Whisky,  per  gal. 

Rum,  per  gal 


Jan.  1,1864. 


I  to  8 


26  and  28  cts 

|1. 2.5 

75  cts 

50  cts 

75ctsto|1.50. 
12i  to  15  cts 
12  to  15  cts. . . 

6  cts 

37i  cts 

20  cts 

30  cts 

20  to  25  cts... 
15  to  25  cts. . . 

30  cts 

$12  to  ,f  15.... 


$4  to  $10. 
|2to$6.. 
|3  to$5.. 


Jan.  1, 1871. 


|5to|6. 


16  and  18  cts. 
|1  and  374  cts. 

40  cts 

75  cts  to  $1  .. 


8  to  10  cts. . . 
5  and  6  cts. . 

20  cts 

15  cts 

22  cts , 


12i  to  25  cts. 
25  cts 


$4  to  $10. 
$2  to  $6.. 
$3  to  $.5  . . 


Jan.  1, 1881. 


$4  to  $4i. 


12  to  15  cts. 

50  cts. 

20  to  30  cts. 
50  to  $1. 
10  to  12J  cts. 
8  to  10  cts. 
2  cts. 

7  to  10  cts. 
10  to  15  cts. 
20  cts. 
l-2i  cts. 
10  to  25  cts. 
12^  to  15  cts. 
$8  to  $10. 

$4  to  $10. 
$2  to  $6. 
$3  to  $5. 


1864. 


1871. 


1831. 


Rent  of  cottages  or  tenements — 

Three  rooms,  per  month 

Six  rooms  per  month 

Rent  of  single  room,  per  month . 

Cost   of  board   and   room,   per 
month. 

Restaurant  charges — 

Per  week 

Per  meal 


$25. 


$45  to  i 


$40  to  $45 ... . 


75  cts.  and ! 


50  and  75  cts. 


$5  to  $10. 
$10  to  $15. 
$3  to  $10. 
$30  to  |35. 


25  to  50  cts. 


372 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 


If  the  working  miners  care  to  walk  the  streets  in  broadcloth  suits 
and  to  wear  gold  chains,  watches,  and  rings,  they  can  so  bedeck  them- 
selves if  they  choose.  Few,  however,  are  inclined  to  spend  their  wages 
in  costly  clothes  or  jewelry.  If  they  have  any  little  vanity  it  is  shown  in 
shapely  trousers  of  fine  cloth  and  well-made  shoes  of  the  best  leather. 
Plain,  substantial,  sober-colored  suits  are  generally  worn,  excellent  in 
material,  though  not  faultless  in  fit;  still  their  street  clothing  has  a  better 
appearance  than  the  holiday  dress  of  the  average  American  laborer,  as  it 
is  discarded  usually  before  it  becomes  threadbare  and  faded.  The  quality 
and  cost  of  clothing  sold  in  the  city  is  shown  in  the  following  table : 

KEADY-MADE  CLOTHING— PRICE  LIST. 


Men's  working  coats 

$3.  00  ®  $3.  50 

Underwear  —  Shaker    flannel 

Men*s  cassimere    '*            .  -  -  _   . 

5.00  ® 

10.00 

shirts,  best  quality,  doz : 

heavy  cassimere  overshirts,  per 
doz 

heavy  woolen  over-shirts,  per 

512. 00®  $16. 00 

8.00® 

13.00 

14.  00  ® 
6.00® 

20.00 
12.00 

9.00  ®  18.00 

Men's  heavy  Chinchilla  coats. .. 

Men's  trousers  (good  quality)  . . 

3.00® 

6.50 

dozen 

12. 00  ®  24. 00 

4.00® 

8.00 

White  shirts — New  Jersey  Mills, 
muslin,  linen  cufls,  froDt8,and 

Men's  trousers,  black  beaver... 

4.00® 

7.00 

Men's  trousers,  doeskin 

6.00® 

10.00 

collar  bands,  each 

2;  00 

Men's  trousers,  diagonal 

3.00® 

7.00 

Cheviot  dress  shirt,  per  dozen  . 

7. 00  ®  21. 00 

Men's  waistcoats,  cassimere 

1.50® 

3.00 

Percale,  per  dozen 

6.00®  14.00 

Men's          "          bl'k  doeskin  . 

2.50® 

5.00 

Hosiery — white  cotton  socks,  best. 

Men's          "          diagonal 

1.50® 

3.00 

per  dozen 

2. 00  ®    3. 00 

Overcoats — Chinchilla 

beaver 

6.00® 
6.00® 

20.00 
22.00 

Lisle-thread  socks 

3.  00  ®    5.  00 
2. 50  ®     4. 00 

Shaker  wool  and  cotton  socks.. 

rubber 

5.00  ® 

00.00 

fancy  hose 

3.  00  ®     8. 00 

Underwear^extra  heavy  Can- 

Clothing made  to  order — summer 

ton  flannel  shirts  and  drawers. 

and  winter  suits : 

each 

1.00® 

1.50 

American  cloth - 

45. 00  ®  55.  00 

merino  knit  shirts,  best  quality, 

French  and  English  cloth 

55.  00  ®  65. 00 

doz 

5.00  ® 

18.00 

Overcoats — American  cloth 

35.  00  ®  45.  00 

red  flanuel  shirts,  best  quality. 

Imported  cloth 

50. 00  ®  55. 00 

doz 

9.00  ® 

18.00 

The  miners'  houses  are  even  less  pretentious  than  their  dress ;  yet 
the  plain  cabins  and  cottages,  sometimes  neither  whitewashed  nor  painted, 
and  decidedly  inferior  externally  to  the  same  class  of  dwellings  in  a  New 
England  village,  are  furnished  with  all  the  home  comforts  which  the 


THE  LABOEEKS  OF  WASHOE.  373 

miner  needs  or  desires.  Beds,  stoves,  and  other  furniture  are  excellent 
of  their  kind,  and  when  a  woman  has  charge  of  the  house  the  somewhat 
barren  rooms  are  often  transformed  into  cosy  lodgings  by  bright-colored 
curtains,  soft  carpets,  prettily-figured  wall-paper,  and  the  hundred  lesser 
additions  which,  in  tasteful  combination,  make  even  a  rude  cabin  interior 
pleasing  to  the  eye.  The  unmarried  miners  live  commonly  in  lodging- 
houses,  of  which  there  are  22  in  Virginia  City ;  6  are  built  of  brick  and 
the  remainder  of  wood.  They  are  plain  buildings,  two  and  three  stories 
in  height,  with  an  average  floor-surface  of  45  by  75  feet.  A  hall  from  6 
to  8  feet  in  width  extends  through  the  house  usually,  with  apartments 
on  each  side.  Most  of  the  rooms  are  simple  dormitories,  averaging  10 
by  12  feet  in  size,  but  the  connected  rooms  or  suites  are  considerably 
larger.  There  are  in  all  550  single  rooms  and  110  suites,  with  accommo- 
dations for  945  persons.  These  apartments  are  all  carpeted  and  comfort- 
ably furnished  according  to  the  requirements  of  the  lodgers.  No  furnaces 
or  steam-heating  apparatus  are  in  the  buildings,  but  the  rooms  are 
warmed,  if  desired,  by  stoves.  For  lights  candles  or  coal-oil  lamps  are 
used — generally  the  latter — the  high  price  of  gas  barring  its  introduction 
from  the  street-mains.  The  arrangements  for  ventilation  are  excellent. 
Not  more  than  a  dozen  rooms  in  all  the  houses  are  without  windows,  and 
these  have  large  transoms  opening  into  the  central  hall.  Nine  of  the 
twenty-two  houses  have  bath-rooms  for  general  use,  and  the  lack  of  these 
in  the  remainder  is  fairly  attributed  to  the  existence  of  the  commodious, 
well-fitted  baths  at  the  mine-works.  Water-closets  near  all  the  houses  are 
well  constructed  and  well  cared  for.^  In  those  houses  where  the  inmates 
are  boarded  good  accommodations  can  be  had  at  from  $8  to  |10.  Thirty 
dollars  per  month  is  a  common  rate  for  board  and  lodging  (1881),  and  in 
some  houses  $5  per  week  only  is  charged.  These  prices  are  considerably 
below  the  rates  demanded  in  1876-77,  a  period  of  bonanza,  the  average 
reduction  being  probably  30  per  cent.  The  price  of  lodging,  simply,  shows 
a  much  greater  decline,  suites  being  freely  offered  (1881)  for  |15  and  $20 
which  were  rented  four  years  ago  at  from  $40  to  |60  per  month. 

Well  fed,  well  clothed,  and  well  lodged,  the  miners  are  naturally  robust 

'  Records  of  Special  Agents  Tenth  Census. 


374  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 

and  healthy.  The  atmosphere  of  the  mountain  towns  is  pure  and  invigor- 
ating. During  the  winter  season  the  cold  is  sometimes  severe,  but  varia- 
tions in  temperature  are  less  sudden  than  on  the  Atlantic  seaboard,  and  the 
changes  are  borne  without  shock  or  discomfort.  Indeed,  the  climate  has 
been  particularly  recommended  to  consumptive  patients.  Pneumonia, 
typhoid  fever,  and  rheumatism  are  the  prevalent  forms  of  sickness,^  but 
no  one  of  these  exists  to  any  considerable  extent.  During  1871  and  1872, 
when  the  heat  of  the  lower  mine-levels  first  became  intense  and  the  pro- 
vision for  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  working  miners  was  insufficient, 
many  suffered  from  pulmonary  and  rheumatic  affections.^  Transferred 
in  a  moment  from  a  torrid  to  a  frigid  zone,  in  the  passage  from  the  foot 
to  the  mouth  of  a  mine-shaft,  they  went  out  from  the  shaft-works  sweat- 
ing and  often  half  clothed  into  the  keen  frosty  atmosphere  of  the  moun- 
tain slope.  It  was  no  wonder  that  many  a  man  reached  his  home  half 
choked  by  acute  pneumonia  and  spitting  blood.  By  heavy  doses  of  qui- 
nine, ranging  as  high  as  120  grains  in  the  course  of  24  hours,^  and  the 
free  use  of  stimulants,  the  acute  attacks  were  generally  relieved ;  but  they 
often  terminated  fatally,  for  the  miners  drank  liquors  so  freely  when  in 
health  that  the  remedy  of  stimulants  did  not  produce  its  natural  effect 
when  they  were  suffering  from  pneumonia,  and  the  physicians  feared  to 
administer  liquor  in  extraordinary  quantities,  as  the  normal  action  of  the 
liver  and  kidneys  was  already  deranged  by  alcohol ;  but  the  evil  soon 
wrought  its  own  cure.  Taught  by  experience,  the  men  exposed  themselves 
less  heedlessly  to  changes  of  temperature,  and  mine  superintendents  pro- 
vided for  their  health  more  carefully.  More  attention  was  paid  to  secur- 
ing systematic  ventilation  throughout  the  lode  by  connecting  galleries, 
and  more  powerful  blowers  were  used  to  force  fresh  air  into  the  prospect- 
ing drifts.  Well-fitted  dressing-rooms  and  baths  were  constructed  in  the 
hoisting-works  for  the  use  of  the  miners,  and  the  benefit  thereby  derived 
was  apparent  at  once.* 

Not  only  are  the  immediate  bodily  wants  of  the  miners  well  satisfied, 
but  unusual  provision  is  made  for  the  instruction  and  amusement  of  the 

'  Doctors  Grant,  Kirby,  and  Harris,  Virginia  City,  1880.  ^  Doctor  Kirby. 

»  Doctor  E.  B.  Harris.  "  Vide  Tables  VI,  VII,  VIII.  IX,  X.  XI,  XII,  Appendix. 


THE  LABOEEES  OF  WASHOE.  375 

men  and  their  families.  Catholic  and  Protestant  churches  open  their 
doors  to  all  in  the  city,  and  services  are  frequent.  The  public  schools 
are  exceptionally  well  conducted,  even  as  compared  with  New  England 
schools  of  the  same  grade.  The  teachers  are  well  paid,  competent  as  a 
body,  and  interested  in  their  work,  and  the  scholars,  in  consequence,  are 
attentive  and  responsive,  quick  to  learn,  and  trained  to  digest  their  text- 
books. No  people  appreciate  the  value  of  a  thorough  common-school 
education  more  fully  than  the  inhabitants  of  the  Gomstock  mining  towns. 
Even  the  most  ignorant  miner  is  anxious  that  his  children  shall  have  the 
training  which  he  lacks.  Thus,  in  1880,  only  4  per  cent,  of  the  children 
in  these  towns  between  the  ages  of  eight  and  fourteen  were  reported 
as  not  attending  school,^  and  infirm  health  would  probably  account  for  the 
absence  of  most  of  this  small  minority.  The  children  are  conscious  of  the 
interest  which  is  taken  in  their  progress  and  are  strongly  stimulated  by  it. 
Reared  among  surroundings  so  remarkable  and  exciting,  they  drink  in  a  rest- 
less, sanguine  temper  with  their  mothers'  milk.  In  the  schools  they  show 
themselves  notably  precocious  and  quick  of  comprehension,  full  of  animal 
spirits,  but  tractable  and  orderly  when  the  teacher  commands  their  respect. 
Plodding  perseverance  is  a  rare  trait  with  them,  however.  Too  impatient 
to  disentangle  knots,  they  would  either  cut  the  cord  or  throw  it  aside  ;  still 
they  are  not  discouraged  by  obstacles,  and  if  they  are  kept  steadily  at  work 
they  will  usually  master  all  difficulties.  Mathematics,  geography,  and 
the  natural  sciences  are  the  favorite  studies,  and  the  general  proficiency 
is  shown  unmistakably  by  the  recitations  and  written  examinations.  It 
may  fairly  be  doubted  whether  any  teaching  in  the  country  is  more  sug- 
gestive and  successful  than  in  the  object-lesson  and  normal  classes  of 
the  Gold  Hill  schools.  The  appended  table  presents  concisely  some  inter- 
esting data  prepared  by  the  superintendent  of  schools : 

SCHOOL  STATISTICS  OF  STOREY  COUNTY. 
Virginia  City  and  Gold  Hill. — 1880. 

Number  of  school-houses 11 

Valuation  of  school-houses  and  furniture $132,  850 

Valuation  of  school  apparatus $2,  600 

Number  of  volumes  in  school  libraries 431 

Valuation  of  school  libraries |1,  060 

'  Keport  of  Superintendent  of  Schools,  1880. 


376  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

Number  of  mixed-grade  schools 2 

Number  of  primary            "       28 

Number  of  grammar           "       9 

Number  of  high                  "       2 

Total  number  of                 " 41 

Average  daily  attendance 2,  001 

Average  number  of  pupils 2, 143 

Percentage  of  attendance 93.  4 

Number  of  male  teachers 5 

Number  of  female  teachers 40 

Total  number  of  teachers 45 

Average  monthly  salary  male  teachers $154.  75 

Average  monthly  salary  female  teachers $99.  40 

Total  average  salary  teachers ; $104. 10 

Total  number  children  under  21  years  of  age 6,  612 

Total  number  children  under  21  years  of  age  born  in  Nevada 3,  40o 

Total  number  children  between  18  and  21  years 177 

Total  number  children  under  6  years 2,  552 

Total  number  children  between  6  and  18  years 3,  883 

Total  number  girls  between  6  and  18  years 2,004 

Total  number  boys  between  6  and  18  years 1,  879 

Total  number  children  between  6  and  18  years  not  attending  school 763 

Total  number  children  between  8  and  14  years  not  attending  school 70 

Total  number  children  reported  as  attending  public  schools 2,  565 

Total  number  cliildren  reported  as  attending  private  schools 543 

Total  number  attending  school 3,  008 

Nationality,  Religion,  and  Occupation  of  Parents  of  Pupils  of  Public  Schools. 

Number  of  parents  born  on  Pacific  coast 68 

Number  of  parents  born  in  Western  States 249 

Number  of  parents  born  in  Middle  States 370 

Number  of  parents  born  in  Eastern  States 272 

Number  of  parents  born  in  England 627 

Number  of  parents  born  in  Ireland 1, 17'J 

Number  of  parents  born  in  Germany 273 

Number  of  parents  born  in  other  countries 332 

Total  number  of  parents 3,  360 

Total  number  of  parents  of  Catholic  faith 1,  768 

Total  number  of  parents  of  Protestant  faith 1,391 

Total  number  of  parents  of  no  religious  faith 204 

Number  of  parents,  miners  and  mill-men 1,950 

Number  of  parents,  mechanics 397 

Number  of  parents,  professional  men 37 


THE  LABOREES  OF  WASHOE.  377 

The  library  of  the  Virginia  City  Miners'  Union  consists  of  2,000 
volumes,  selected  to  suit  the  tastes  of  its  members  by  a  committee  chosen 
from  among  their  number.^  Only  such  books  were  bought  as  would  be 
generally  read — novels,  romances,  books  of  travel,  and  elementary  text- 
books on  mechanics  and  physics  forming  the  bulk  of  the  collection.  The 
result  of  this  practical  system  of  selection  is  shown  in  the  appearance  of 
the  books  on  the  shelves,  thumb-worn  and  soiled  frequently,  but  none 
dusty  or  with  uncut  pages.  For  those  who  are  pleased  with  dramatic 
entertainments  a  theatre,  seating  about  1,300,  is  open  during  the  greater 
part  of  the  year  in  times  of  bonanza,  and  less  frequently  when  the  yield 
of  the  mines  decreases.  On  its  stage  have  appeared  most  of  the  noted 
actors,  singers,  and  musicians  who  have  visited  the  Pacific  coast  of  recent 
years,  and  few  audiences  are  more  interested  and  respectfully  attentive 
during  the  progress  of  a  play  than  the  oddly-assorted  company  which  fills 
the  opera-house  in  Virginia  City  from  pit  to  gallery.  Even  if  the  theatre 
is  closed,  the  staple  pleasures  of  mining  towns,  drinking,  card-playing,  and 
billiards,  are  never  failing.  The  100  saloons  of  Virginia  City  and  Gold 
Hill  sold,  in  1880,  75,000  gallons  of  liquor,  chiefly  whisky,  exclusive  of 
beer  and  wine.''  In  the  six  breweries  of  the  county  147,996  gallons  of 
beer  were  manufactured  during  the  year,  and  the  amount  sold  reached 
225,000  gallons  in  round  numbers — 67,800  gallons  having  been  imported 
from  California  and  about  10,000  gallons  from  the  Eastern  States.^  This 
is  an  average  of  15  gallons  per  head  for  every  resident  of  the  county,  in 
addition  to  the  average  consumption  of  5  gallons  of  liquor.  At  "a  bit  a 
drink"  (12i  cents),  the  usual  price,  the  cost  of  the  liquor  per  head  was 
at  least  $40,  and  its  total  cost  |600,000,  reckoning  64  drinks  to  the  gallon, 
the  saloon  estimate.  The  price  of  the  beer  and  wine  at  retail  was  prob- 
ably half  this  sum,  so  that  $900,000  was  expended  in  quenching  the  thirst 
of  20,000  people  ;  yet  1880  was  called  a  "dry  year"  in  comparison  with 
1876.  Notwithstanding  this  miraculous  draught,  few  drunkards  could  be 
seen  reeling  about  on  the  streets  or  before  the  bars ;  for  custom  has  made 
it  a  property  of  easiness  to  take  glass  after  glass  without  visible  effect, 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  16,  1878. 

»  Kecords  of  United  States  Census  Agents,  1880.  '  /j^^. 


378  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

and  no  intoxicated  man  is  suffered  to  enter  the  mines.  The  strict  require- 
ments of  the  mine  superintendents  and  the  personal  pride  of  the  miners 
are  strong  safeguards  against  reckless  excess.  The  value  of  these  safe- 
guards and  the  improved  social  condition  of  the  city  are  clearly  evident 
in  the  criminal  record  for  June,  1880,  as  contrasted  with  the  record  for 
June,  1863;^  for  the  monthly  percentage  of  arrests  to  population  is  shown 
to  be  .009,  or  less  than  one-third  of  the  percentage  in  1863,  .0285+,  and 
this,  too,  at  a  time  when  the  police  force  was  incomparably  more  efficient 
and  faithful. 

Criminal  Cases  and  Disposition  of  Criminals  in  Virginia  City  during  the  month  of  June, 

1880. 
[Population  11,000.] 

Assault  and  battery 24 

Assault  with  intent  to  kill 2 

Cruelty  to  animals 1 

Distui-bing  the  peace 11 

Drawing  deadly  weapons 4 

Drunk  and  disorderly 18 

Forgery 1 

Gambling  without  license 2 

Grand  larceny 3 

Petit  larceny 9 

Illegal  voting 1 

Loitering  in  saloon 1 

Malicious  mischief 10 

Threatening  life 1 

Vagrancy 7 

Violating  city  ordinance 5 

Guilty 28 

Not  guilty 70 

Held  for  trial .___  2 

Committed 19 

Males 84 

Females 16 

Total  (5  of  whom  were  Chinese)^ 100 

Billiard-rooms  and  gambling-houses  are  well  patronized,  but  much 
less  than  in  times  of  bonanza,  and  the  houses  of  ill-fame  are  half 
deserted.      Even  stock-gambling,  the  absorbing  passion  of  the  Washoe 

'  See  p.  210.  ^  Vide  Table  XIU,  Appendix. 


THE  LABOEERS  OF  WASHOE.  379 

miners,  is  feebly  maintained.  This  is  due,  of  course,  to  a  change  of 
income,  not  of  disposition.  With  few  exceptions  the  miners  have  staked 
their  savings  on  the  rise  and  fall  of  stocks  with  singular  persistency. 
None  know  better  than  they  the  emptiness  of  stock  "deals''  and  the  un- 
certainty of  actual  "strikes,"  and  none  estimate  more  clearly  the  power 
of  large  operators  and  the  comparative  weakness  of  humble  gamblers. 
None  see  the  odds  against  them  more  vividly  and  yet  none  accept  these 
odds  more  readily.  Their  employment  in  the  mines,  with  its  apparent 
privilege  of  inspecting  daily  the  work  of  development,  is  on  the  whole  a 
delusive  advantage.  They  see  the  walls  of  the  galleries  and  can  judge 
correctly  the  value  of  ore  in  sight;  but  they  cannot  look  beneath  the  sur- 
face. Indications  are  often  misleading,  and  men  working  in  the  depths 
of  a  treasure-chamber  are  not  likely  to  calculate  its  riches  coolly  and 
accurately.  Their  imagination  is  heated  by  dazzling  visions;  possibilities 
appear  probabilities  and  chances  certainties.  In  spite  of  a  hundred  les- 
sons of  disappointment  they  are  inflexibly  sanguine,  and  invest  commonly 
in  the  hope  of  a  change  for  the  better.  Even  when  they  know  the  true 
condition  of  a  mine,  and  that  a  rise  in  the  quoted  value  of  its  stock  is  a 
mere  absurdity,  yet  they  hope  to  share  in  the  profits  of  the  deal  and  give 
their  mite  to  swell  the  bubble.  Such  gambling  does  not  make  men  scru- 
pulous or  cautious ;  they  welcome  stock  flurries,  even  if  they  laugh  at 
their  inanity,  and  resolve  to  profit  by  every  opportunity.  Herein  lies 
the  secret  of  their  general  ill  success.  Sometimes  they  win  largely 
and  might  live  comfortably  on  their  gains,  but  they  are  never  content 
to  leave  the  stock-exchange,  and  lose  in  later  ventures  what  they  have 
won.  They  speculate  too  often  and  hold  their  purchases  too  long. 
The  gambling  fever  is  not  intermittent,  and  men  whom  it  possesses  are 
restless  except  when  buying  and  selling  in  the  stock  market.  They 
cannot  remain  neutral  and  see  bulls  and  bears  contending  without 
discrimination;  so  they  are  drawn  into  the  speculative  whirlpool  and 
ultimately  sink  in  its  vortex.  Their  disappearance  is  hastened  by  their 
inordinate  greed  which  is  not  satisfied  with  300  or  400  per  cent.,  but 
demands  a  fortune  for  a  dollar.  Thus  few  of  the  Comstock  miners  have 
saved  any  money,  although  so  liberally  paid,  for  the  stock-exchange  has 


380  HISTOET  OF  THE  COM3TO0K  LODE. 

swallowed  up  all  except  the  cost  of  their  daily  subsistence,  and  their 
exceptionally  high  wages  have  not  been  of  proportionate  advantage  to 
them.  This  return  of  surplus  earnings  to  the  gambling  fund  was  so  cer- 
tain that  a  noted  mine-owner  and  stock-operator  said  with  truth  that  he 
did  not  care  whether  the  miners  were  allowed  $3,  $4,  or  |5  per  day;  for 
whatever  sum  he  paid  out  over  $3  would  come  back  to  his  pockets  again 
through  the  stock-exchange;  yet  the  miners  are  so  fond  of  stock-gambling 
that  they  continue  to  pay  back  with  one  hand  what  they  receive  with  the 
other.  In  this  light  the  difference  between  their  wages  and  those  of  ordi- 
nary American  miners  appears  sometimes  a  fallacious  allowance,  given 
for  their  amusement  rather  than  for  their  use — not  so  much  a  benefit  as 
a  bauble.  However,  this  disposal  of  their  surplus  earnings  is  a  matter 
which  concerns  them  solely;  they  have  a  right  to  do  as  they  please  with 
their  own  if  others  are  not  injured  thereby,  and  if  they  choose  to  squan- 
der their  earnings  none  can  gainsay  them ;  but  they  have  no  right  to 
dispose  of  what  is  not  their  own,  to  disburse  the  wages-fund,  and  to  pro- 
hibit the  employment  of  labor  except  at  arbitrary  rates.  The  injustice 
thereby  done  to  the  mine  stockholders  has  been  pointed  out.  This  the 
union  does  not  consider  or  care  for ;  but  it  is  strange  that  many  of  its 
members  do  not  see  the  injury  which  they  are  inflicting  upon  themselves. 
They  may,  indeed,  prevent  the  mining  companies  from  employing  any 
miners  except  at  the  rate  of  $4  per  day,  but  they  cannot  compel  the  com- 
panies to  give  work  at  this  rate  to  all  who  seek  employment.  In  times  of 
bonanza,  when  labor  is  in  demand,  all  the  members  of  the  union  may  be 
hired  as  miners;  but  in  times  of  borrasca  the  demand  falls  off  and  many 
laborers  are  discharged.  Obviously  the  least  efficient  laborers  will  be  the 
first  to  lose  their  places.  The  secretary  of  the  union  may  allege  that  a 
novice,  after  a  few  months'  practice,  is  as  serviceable  as  an  experienced 
miner,^  but  facts  do  not  support  his  assertion.  The  unions  have  not  been 
disposed  to  establish  a  scale  of  wages  whereby  men  may  be  paid  in  pro- 
portion to  their  vigor  and  ability,  and  in  default  of  this  scale  only  the 
most  expert  workmen  will  be  retained  when  the  mining  industry  is  de- 
pressed.   The  best  men  were  receiving,  in  1880,  as  much  as  $4.75  per 

'  B.  Colgan,  Secretary  of  Miners'  Union,  Virginia  City,  1880. 


THE  LABORERS  OF  WASHOE.  381 

day/  but  ordinary  laborers  were  shut  out  entirely  from  service.  Now  it  is 
of  interest  to  note  that  the  very  men  who  need  exceptionally  high  wages 
are  precisely  the  ones  who  fail  to  get  work  at  all  under  the  ordinance  of 
their  unions — that  is,  men  with  families  are  less  vigorous,  less  energetic, 
less  daring,  as  a  body,  than  the  single  men.'^  Consequently,  in  times  of 
borrasca  the  married  men  will  be  dropped  first  from  the  roll.  It  is  a 
simple  instance  of  the  survival  of  the  fittest,  but  it  bears  hardly  on  a 
portion  of  the  union  members ;  those  who  have  most  need  of  the  union, 
and  for  whose  protection  it  was  perhaps  chiefly  framed,  are  the  ones  whom 
it  evidently  injures.  There  are,  of  course,  exceptions  to  this  discrimina- 
tion ;  some  married  men  are  as  competent  as  any  single  men,  and  will  be 
retained  as  certainly ;  others,  again,  though  less  able,  are  kept  at  work 
from  consideration  for  their  families,  who  would  otherwise  be  left  desti- 
tute ;  and  instances  are  known,  also,  where  single  men  have  left  the  dis- 
trict voluntarily  in  order  to  give  a  better  chance  of  employment  to  men 
with  families,  and  working  members  of  the  union  often  allow  unemployed 
members  to  take  a  share  of  their  shifts  and  thus  earn  a  living,  for, 
though  the  working  force  is  of  many  different  nationalities,  the  men  labor 
and  live  together  on  the  best  of  terms.  It  is  also  true  that  married  men 
cannot  afford,  as  a  rule,  to  leave  the  district  in  search  of  employment,  and 
linger  on,  earning  a  precarious  living,  long  after  their  associates,  the 
bachelor  miners,  have  emigrated  to  other  places.  So,  finally,  when  the 
industry  of  the  district  revives  they  obtain  work  as  the  first  applicants, 
and  when  single  men  drift  back  to  the  district  on  the  report  of  its  reviv- 
ing prosperity,  most  of  the  available  positions  have  been  filled,  and  super- 
intendents do  not  commonly  discharge  married  men  to  make  room  directly 
for  single  men,  even  though  the  latter  are  confessedly  the  better  miners. 

In  spite  of  these  checks  upon  the  operation  of  the  Darwinian  principle 
the  fact  remains  that  the  maintenance  of  an  arbitrary  standard  of  wages 
has  resulted  in  ostracising  the  laborer  of  moderate  ability  and  in  build- 
ing up  a  guild  of  the  most  competent  workmen  of  their  class.  The  miners 
of  the  Comstock  Lode  may  challenge  comparison  with  any  miners  in  the 

'  Pay-roll  of  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  January,  1881. 
'  James  G.  Fair  and  other  superintendents  of  principal  mines. 


382  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

world  in  vigor,  intelligence,  and  skill.  They  are  of  many  nationalities, 
but  mainly  Americans,  Irish,  and  English.  Experience  has  shown  that 
better  results  are  obtained  by  the  employment  of  men  of  several  nations 
on  a  shift  or  in  a  level,  rather  than  by  making  up  a  working  party  of  men 
of  one  nation  exclusively.  Ptivalry  supplies  an  additional  incentive, 
there  is  less  disposition  to  shirk  labor  by  the  secret  understanding  of  a 
clique,  and  the  distribution  of  work  is  somewhat  more  efficient.  Thus 
Cornish  miners,  as  a  rule,  excel  as  timber-men,  though  in  general  mine- 
work  Irish  and  Americans  are  perhaps  more  active  and  dexterous;  but  no 
distinction  in  general  efficiency  among  the  Comstock  Lode  miners  can  be 
based  on  national  differences.  No  poor  workmen  are  employed,  and  the 
only  ground  of  preference  is  the  superior  skill  and  intelligence  of  an  indi- 
vidual applicant,  whether  he  be  a  Swede,  Italian,  Englishman,  or  American. 
A  clear  presentation  of  the  comparative  numbers,  height,  and  weight 
of  the  Comstock  miners  is  given  in  the  table  appended,  showing  the  actual 
working  force  in  1880: 


THE  LABOEBRS  OF  WASHOE. 


383 


Table  showing  nationality,  age,  height,  and  weight  of  men  on  Gomstoek  Lode 

and  in  Siifro  Tunnel. 


Nationality. 

1 

§ 

1 

« 

S 

S 

AOE. 

1 

ll 

< 

a 
1 

a 
1 

d 

770 
1 

11 

2 

191 

1 

16 

640 

1 

17 

55 

2 

810 

14 

1 

3 

5 

6 

32 

19 

1 

12 

2 

83 

1 

22 

12 

34 

360 

410 

27,627 

47 

378 

66 

6,012 

48 

638 

23, 108 

35 

660 

2,171 

104 

30,610 

490 

62 

115 

187 

213 

1,137 

678 

41 

628 

94 

3, 120 

38 

869 

419 

1,394 

35.  S3 

47 

34.36 

.■53 

34.82 

48 

39.87 

36.30 

35 

39.36 

39.28 

52 

37.26 

35 

52 

38.33 

37 

36.65 

35,63 

36.73 

41 

44 

47 

37.59 

38 

39.04 

34.91 

39.82 

65 
27 
64 
33 
53 
48 
58 
69 
35 
60 
58 
66 
65 
60 
52 
46 
51 
46 
60 
5'1 
41 
56 
59 
67 
38 
61 
60 
66 

17 
27 
29 
33 
18 
48 
24 
19 
35 
25 
24 
48 
17 
22 
62 
32 
20 
27 
21 
28 
41 
82 
85 
24 
38 
27 
26 
23 

3 
2 
71 

7 

367 

7 

27 

2 

434 

3 

1 

3 
3 
16 
12 

8 
2 

37 

9 
7 
16 

8 

120 
1 
9 
283 
1 
10 
28 

382 
11 

3 

2 

16 
7 
1 
4 

46 
1 

13 
5 

18 

Dutch                               -  

Welsh                             

2,770 

1,383 

1,882 

101,369 

36.67 

65 

IT 

384 


HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


Table  showing  nationality,  age,  &c. — Continued. 


NATION.LLITT. 

• 

Heioht. 

Weight. 

Aggregate. 

< 

a 

s 

a 

i 

0 

1 

> 
< 

a 

3 

a 

1 
s 

a 

ft.      in. 

ft.      in. 

/(.  in. 

ft. 

in. 

lbs. 

m. 

U>s. 

as. 

4,426    9i 

6    8.98 

6    3} 

6 

1 

125,647 

162.96 

235 

115 

Angtralians 

5    8i 

5     8.50 

6    Si 

5 

8i 

196 

196 

196 

196 

65    2 
U  10 

5  11.10 
S    S 

6    6i 
6     2 

5 
5 

6 
8 

1,875 
334 

170.45 
167 

206 
195 

136 
139 

Belgians 

1,101    4 

6    9.i9 

6    4 

6 

4 

31,744 

166.19 

210 

128 

Chinf>RA 

6    8 
86  lis 
3,615     6i 

5     8 
5    7.43 
5    7.80 

5  8 
8 

6  3 

6 

5 
6 

8 
2i 

145 

2,555 

101,449 

145 
153.43 

158.76 

145 
196 

242 

145 
120 
120 

English - 

Finlanders 

6    8 

5     8 

6    8 

6 

8 

150 

150 

160 

160 

96  11 
313 

5     8.41 
5     8.29 

6    3 

6    2 

6 
6 

6 

4 

2,807 
9,016 

165.11 
163.90 

196 
202 

137 
126 

Germans 

Dutch--      

10     6i 

6    3.26 

6     6 

6 

i 

297 

148.50 

167 

140 

Irish . -      -       -  -    — 

4,677     9i 

5    8.79 

6    5i 

6 

i 

133,363 

163.43 

225 

103 

Italians 

79  10 

5     8.50 

6  lli 

6 

6 

2,276 

162.67 

184 

140 

Laplanders 

5     9 

6     9 

6     9 

6 

9 

160 

150 

150 

160 

Manxmen 

16  114 

5    9.60 

6    9 

6 

8i 

516 

172 

170 

164 

New  Brunswickere 

28    6i 

5     8.50 

6  10 

6 

6 

805 

161 

195 

140 

36    6i 

6  10.91 

6    1 

6 

Rf 

1,010 

168.33 

195 

14S 

Vnv^  R^v^tinnn 

186    4 
107    4i 

5    9.54 
5     7.81 

6    3 
5  10 

6 

5 

6 
5 

5,371 
2,999 

167.84 
157.84 

195 
188 

137 
130 

Portuguese 

Prince  Edward  Islanders 

6 

6 

6 

6 

170 

170 

170 

170 

Prussians 

68    4 

5    8.33 

6 

6 

5 

2,011 

167.58 

225 

138 

Bussians 

11     2 

6    7 

6     8 

6 

6 

312      156 

162 

160 

Scotch  .-     

474 

6    8.63 

6    1 

S 

4 

23,346      160.79 

194 

126 

6  10 

6  10 

5  10 

6  10 

149  j  149 

149 

149 

Swedes    .    . 

124  lOi 

5    8.11 

0     1 

6 

4 

3,506  1  159.36 

149 

149 

Swiss 

67     2 

5    7.16 

5  10 

6 

4 

1,899      158.25 

176 

140 

WAl.h 

193    6i 

5    7.92 

6 

6 

3 

6,516     162,23 

225 

136 

TOTAL__ 

16,973  111 

6    9.20 

6    61 

6 

469,614     165.92 

242 

103 

THE  LABOEBKS  OP  WASHOE. 


385 


'  Table  showing  the  employment  of  men  in  the  Oomstodk  Lode  and  in  the  Sutro 

Tunnel,  1880. 


Nationalitt, 

Employment. 

a 
1 

i 

% 
.a 

.3 
a 

1 

a 

1 

1 

a 
S 

t 

P9 

2 

ii 

n 

a* 

0} 

a 

a 

& 

a 

i 

6 

s 

a 

■a 

a 

a 
& 

a 

a 
s 

u 
at 

a 

to 

1 
1 

s 

1 

a 

2 

2 

o 

a 
1 

a 
3 

1 

a 

,d 

*3 

AmericanB 

17 

1 

1 

12 

4 

1 

10 

46 

— 

97 

41 

13 

1 

40 

31 

Australians 

Austrians 

Belgians 

12 

1 

3 

1 

3 

— 

1 

— 

1 

7 

5 

2 

2 

7 

1 

— 

4 

3 

Chinese 

Danes 

1 
6 

1 
6 

1 
16 

3 
4 

English 

16 

2 

1 

1 

— 

2 

4 

6 

10 

rinlandera 

1 
2 

1 
6 

1 
9 

26 
1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

— 

2 

12 

1 
11 

1 
1 

Dutch 

7 

— 

— 

1 



4 

1 

12 

11 

1 

9 



1 

1 

Italians 

1 

New  Brunswickera 

1 

1 
1 
i 

— 

1 

1 

— • 

— 

z 

5 

1 

— 

1 

1 
1 

1 

6 

1 

— 

1 

1 

Scotch 

3 

1 



1 

6 

— 

12 

6 

1 

3 

— 

6 

— 

Swedes 

1 

1 

1 

4 
3 
2 

Swiss 

1 

Welsh 

3 

3 



Total 

62 

26 

6 

3S 

6 

2 

17 

88 

1 

150 

66 

31 

1 

1 

1 

HI 

a 

6 

61 

'  Records  of  Special  Ageuts,  Tenth  Census. 


25  HC 


386 


HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 
Table  showing  the  employment  of  men — Continued. 


Nationaiitv. 

Employment. 

1 
« 

1  1^ 

E 

S 

■a 
1 

1 

i 
> 

o 

1 
a 

1 

i 
1 

a 

§, 

a 

s 

a 

1 
OT 

e 

EH 

a 

i 

1 

. 
g 

a 
■g 

1 

t 

P. 
■g 

2 

f 
■s 

AmericanB 

2 

1 

2 

1 

394 
1 
9 
1 

132 

1 

7 

2 

2 

8 

2 

1 

1 

1 

15 

5 

3 

1 

1 

1 

— 

1 

1 

1 

1 



1 

— 

2 

1 

8 
543 

2 
2 

1 

" 

1 

15 

3 

1 

— 

14 
30 
1 
691 
11 

2 

2 







2 

Dutch 

Irish 

1 

1 

3 

3 

9 

1 

2 

1 

3 

3 

1 



— 





— 









6 

17 
9 
1 
9 
1 

44 
1 

11 
8 

22 

1 
3 

1 



1 

Prince  Edward  Islanders— 



1 

1 
1 

1 

1 

! 

1 

1 

1 

1 

4 

1 

1 

1        1 

1      1 



Welsh 

3 

1 

' 

Total 

2 

1 

2 

2 

1,906 

2 

9 

5 

2 

1 

1 

27 

26 

1 

2 

1 

30 

9       8 

7 

The  relative  efficiency  of  these  workmen  is-  so  great  that,  notwith- 
standing the  higla  rate  of  wages,  tlie  cost  of  extracting  ore  is  not  excessive 
as  compared  with  tlie  same  expense  in  other  districts.  Thus,  in  1877, 
217,432  tons  of  ore  were  quarried  and  raised  to  the  surface  by  the  Cah- 
fornia  Mining  Company  from  an  average  deptli  of  1,600  feet  at  a  cost  of 


THE  LAJ30EEES  OF  WASHOE.  387 

$6.12+per  ton.'  One  hundred  and  ninety-one  thousand  five  hundred  and 
two  days'  labor  was  paid  for,  sliowing  an  average  daily  extraction  through- 
out the  year  of  1  iVV  tons  of  ore  for  every  employe.  This  record  is  with- 
out parallel,  and  attests  the  remarkable  efficiency  of  the  miners  beyond 
question,  though  due  allowance  should  be  made  for  the  favorable  condi- 
tions under  which  the  work  was  done,  the  size  and  character  of  the  ore- 
body,  and  the  admirable  mechanical  appliances. 

Workmen  of  such  exceptional  ability  would  command  unusually  high 
wages  if  the  rate  was  fixed  by  open  competition,  though  probably  all  would 
not  receive  the  amount  actually  paid — |4.05i  per  shift  of  eight  hours  for 
every  man  employed  under-ground.  Yet,  upon  a  competitive  basis,  the 
workmen  in  the  lower  levels  might  earn  even  more  than  the  standard  rate, 
for  during  the  past  year  (1880),  when  the  known  ore-bodies  were  nearly 
exhausted  and  the  supply  of  labor  was  largely  in  excess  of  the  demand, 
the  best  miners  were  paid  as  much  as  |4.75  per  day.^  Picked  men  are 
needed  for  service  at  the  great  depth  attained  by  the  principal  mine  shafts, 
and  no  mine  overseer  grudges  them  the  pay  demanded.  It  is  only  proposed 
that  workmen  in  the  upper  levels,  where  the  labor  is  less  exhausting, 
should  receive  proportionate  compensation.  A  graded  scale  has  been 
suggested  with  official  sanction,  viz:^ 

Wages  for  8  hours'  work  (one  shift)  iu  levels  between  surface  and  500-foot  level ■ $2 — 2.50 

Wages  for  8  hours'  work  (one  shift)  in  levels  between  500-foot  level  and  1.650-foot  level 3 

Wages  for  8  hours'  work  (one  shift)  in  levels  between  1,650-foot  level  and  2,500-foot  level 3.50 

Wages  for  8  hours'  work  (one  shift)  in  levels  below  2,500-foot  le-rel 4 

This  seems  as  fair  a  proportionment  as  can  be  devised  while  fixed 
rates  of  labor  are  retained ;  or  if  this  plan  is  disliked,  a  substitute  is 
tendered  by  which  shifts  above  the  2,400-foot  level  shall  be  made  a  little 
more  than  two  hours  longer  than  the  regular  eight  hours'  shift,  the  pay 
of  |4  per  shift  being  unchanged.*    The  first  offer  is  the  best  of  the  two 

^  Annual  Report  California  Mining  Company,  1878. 

H  listiDg  ore $186,  461  82 

Slippliee  consumed .357, 101  67 

Salaries  and  wages 788, 012  00 


Total $1,331,575  4 

'Pay-roll  of  the  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company,  January,  1881. 
'  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  15,  1881. 
■•Territorial  Enterprise,  February  25,  1881. 


388  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE, 

for  the  body  of  laborers,  as  the  grading  is  more  complete  and  the  discrim- 
ination in  favor  of  the  most  competent  applicants  will  be  less  marked ; 
yet  the  union  hesitates  to  accept  these  terms  (February,  1881),  though  a 
third  of  their  members  are  idle  and  many  are  suffering  from  want.  They 
refuse  to  accept  the  inevitable  and  seem  to  prefer  starvation  to  scaled 
wages.  A  considerable  amount  of  low-grade  ore  is  left  in  the  upper  mine 
levels  which  could  be  extracted  if  the  cost  of  labor  were  reduced;  for 
then  the  idle  could  be  employed,  young  and  inexperienced  workmen  could 
earn  a  living,  sons  could  assist  fathers  in  the  support  of  families,  and  all 
would  have  food,  clothing,  and  shelter.  Beggary  and  debt  would  diminish, 
all  branches  of  business  would  thrive,  and  the  mining  towns  might  point 
with  pride  to  their  industry  and  prosperity. 

Against  these  certain  benefits  is  opposed  the  dislike  to  abandon  an 
untenable  position,  absurdly  styled  a  principle,  which  is  a  standard  con- 
ceived in  ignorance  and  grounded  on  selfishness.  All  men  are  not  equal 
in  the  sense  of  the  miners'  union;  individual  services  are  unequal,  and 
uniform  payment  is,  therefore,  unjust  and  cannot  long  be  maintained.  It 
is  unjust  to  the  best  workmen,  for  "the  idea  of  keeping  men  at  the  same 
rate  does  not  mean  bringing  the  bad  to  the  level  of  the  good,  but  the  good 
to  the  level  of  the  bad;"^  it  is  unjust  to  weak  and  unskilled  laborers,  for, 
in  times  of  business  depression,  they  are  perforce  discharged  and  must 
beg  or  starve;  it  is  unjust  to  the  employer,  for  it  checks  competition, 
discourages  individual  exertion,  fetters  progress,  diminishes  production, 
reduces  the  profits  of  capital,  and  compels  him  to  pay  the  same  sum  for 
unequal  services.  Exceptional  conditions  may  bolster  up  the  anomaly 
for  a  time,  but  its  ultimate  fall  is  inevitable.  Meanwhile,  its  advocates 
are  acting  the  part  of  dogs  in  the  manger,  denying  work  to  others  which 
they  are  unwilling  to  do  themselves.  This  is  a  plain  statement  of  facts, 
though  somewhat  harsh  in  sound;  but  the  blind  selfishness  of  the  union 
is  not  pointed  out  in  an  unfriendly  spirit. 

'  Vide  the  admirable  Btatement  of  Mr.  Lucas,  who  "began  life  working  for  six  shillings  per  week."  before 
the  Eoyal  Institute  of  British  Architects,  February  4,  1878 ;  Brassey's  "  Labour  Question,"  Appendix,  p.  311. 


CHAPTEE    XIX. 

PAINS  AND  PERILS  OF  MINING. 

A  false  principle  is  attacked,  but  not  its  individual  supporters.  To 
abolish  the  arbitrary  standard  is  now  certainly  to  serve  rather  than  to 
injure  them.  Their  perilous  and  exhausting  work  deserves  adequate  and 
duly  proportioned  compensation.  No  wages  at  present  given  are  too  high 
for  the  service  required  in  the  hot  levels.  The  miners  of  Washoe  are  not 
forced  to  climb  wearisome  flights  of  ladders,  bearing  ore  on  their  heads, 
like  the  Mexican  tenateros,  but  they  descend  daily  into  rock  furnaces 
compared  with  which  the  hottest  Mexican  mines  are  cooling  stations. 
View  their  work !  Descending  from  the  surface  in  the  shaft-cages,  they 
enter  narrow  galleries  where  the  air  is  scarce  respirable.  By  the  dim  light 
of  their  lanterns  a  dingy  rock  surface,  braced  by  rotting  props,  is  visible. 
The  stenches  of  decaying  vegetable  matter,  hot  foul  water,  and  human 
excretions  intensify  the  effects  of  the  heat.  The  men  throw  off  their 
clothes  at  once.  Only  a  light  breech-cloth  covers  their  hips,  and  thick- 
soled  shoes  protect  their  feet  from  the  scorching  rocks  and  steaming  rills 
of  water  which  trickle  over  the  floor  of  the  levels.  Except  for  these  cov- 
erings they  toil  naked,  with  heavy  drops  of  sweat  starting  from  every 
pore.  If  woolen  garments  are  put  on  they  soon  cling  to  the  body  in  hot 
dripping  folds,  irritating  the  flesh  and  checking  the  natural  evaporation 
until  the  blood  courses  feverishly  through  the  arteries,  the  veins  swell, 
the  skin  itches  unbearably,  and  the  wearer  tears  off  the  irksome  clothing 
as  if  it  were  in  truth  the  shirt  of  Nessus.  Yet,  though  naked,  they  can 
only  work  at  some  stopes  for  a  few  moments  at  a  time,  dipping  their  heads 
repeatedly  under  water-showers  from  conduit  pipes,  and  frequently  filling 
their  lungs  with  fresh  air  at  the  open  ends  of  the  blower-tubes.     Then 

(389) 


390  HISTORY  OF  THE  GOMSTOCK  LODE. 

they  are  forced  to  go  back  to  stations  where  the  ventilation  is  better  and 
gain  strength  for  the  renewal  of  their  labor.  The  cause  of  the  extra- 
ordinary increase  of  heat  with  progress  in  depth  along  the  line  of  the 
lode  is  still  a  matter  of  controversy.^  Professor  Church  and  other  observ- 
ers believe  that  the  rising  temperature  is  entirely  due  to  chemical  combi- 
nation between  the  lode  rocks  and  the  water  which  fills  their  seams  and 
fissures.^  This  assumption  is  apparently  invalidated  by  the  more  com- 
plete investigations  made  by  Professor  George  F.  Becker  and  associate 
physicists  during  the  past  two  years.  If  it  is  established  that  no  rise  in 
temperature  is  due  to  kaolinization  of  the  lode  feldspar,  its  chief  cause  is 
doubtless  the  heat  of  the  springs  or  water  reservoirs  in  the  lode,  which 
rise,  perhaps  through  long  and  tortuous  channels,  from  depths  where  the 
eruptive  rocks  retain  much  of  their  primal  heat,  or  where  a  process  of 
chemical  combination  is  actually  heat-producing.  Unfortunately,  no 
exact  record  of  temperature  at  successive  levels,  under  similar  conditions, 
was  made  during  the  period  of  the  lode  development  since  1860,  so  that 
complete  data  relating  to  the  increase  of  temperature  are  lacking. 

In  the  mines  of  a  number  of  companies  in  early  years  the  atmos- 
phere in  many  levels  was  warmer  than  has  been  noted  at  corresponding- 
depths  in  the  silver  mines  of  other  districts  and  countries.  This  excep- 
tional temperature  was  doubtless  due  in  great  part  to  defective  ventilation, 
for  some  of  the  mines  were  opened  heedlessly  and  blunderingly.  Adits 
were  cut  for  hundreds  of  feet  without  any  ventilating  shaft,^  and  men 
worked  with  dogged  persistence  at  the  end  of  drifts,  breathing  an  atmosphere 
so  foul  that  candles  flickered  and  burned  with  a  faint-blue  flame.  When 
four  or  five  candles,  held  at  the  face  of  a  stope,  only  gave  such  light  as 
one  would  furnish  in  pure  air,*  it  was  not  surprising  that  such  levels  were 
accounted  hot  and  noisome,  though  the  indicated  temperature  might  not 
exceed  80°. 

•  The  Comstock  Lode.     Its  Formation  and  History ;  by  Jolm  A.  Church,  E.  M.;  pp.  208-220. 

2  This  process  is  kaolinization,  the  anhydrous  aluminic  silicate  of  the  feldspathic  and  amphibolic  rocks  of 
the  Comstock  being  changed  to  clay  by  combining  with  water. 

'  Isaac  E.  .Tames,  superintendent  of  Sierra  Nevada  Mining  Company;  Philip  Deidesheimer,  superintend- 
ent of  Hale  &  Norcross  Mining  Company. 

^  Isaac  E.  James. 


PAINS  AND  PEEILS  OF  MINING.  391 

The  first  recorded  instance  when  an  unusual  degree  of  heat  was 
noted,  which  cannot  be  attributed  mainly  to  lack  of  ventilation,  was  in 
the  900-foot  level  of  the  Belcher  Mine,  at  the  close  of  the  year  1866.  The 
shaft  had  been  cut  rapidly  through  the  barren  strata  which  extended  from 
the  500-foot  level  and  ventilation  was  no  doubt  poor,  but  when  miners 
could  work  for  a  few  moments  only  at  a  time,  and  sweat  filled  their  loose 
shoes  "until  it  ran  over  the  tops,"^  some  other  cause  must  be  looked  for 
which  could  produce  a  heat  like  this. 

Two  years  later,  when  the  1,000-foot  level  had  been  reached  and 
passed  by  the  shafts  of  several  mines,  the  heat  had  increased  to  such  a 
degree  that  it  became  absolutely  necessary  to  devise  some  method  of  lower- 
ing the  normal  temperature.  The  connection  between  adjoining  shafts  was 
more  regularly  made,  and  the  drafts  or  air-currents  thus  established  were 
utihzed  as  far  as  possible  throughout  the  levels.  Still  the  heat  in  some 
drifts  was  fast  becoming  unbearable.  Fortunately,  the  rock  strata  of  the 
lower  levels  were  dryer  than  the  strata  above,  so  that  the  hot  atmosphere 
was  not  charged  with  vapor;  yet  when  the  dry  air  at  the  end  of  drifts  and 
cross-cuts  did  not  circulate  freely  it  soon  became  unfit  to  breathe,  and 
the  gasping  miners  were  forced  to  seek  fresh-air  currents  at  frequent 
intervals. 

Powerful  blowers  or  revolving  fans  were  then  (1868)  generally  put 
in  use  along  the  line  of  the  lode."  In  August  of  this  year  the  lower  levels 
of  the  Bullion  Mine  were  as  "  dry  as  a  lime-kiln  and  as  hot  as  an  oven."^ 
This  mine  was  the  deepest  on  the  lode  at  the  time,  its  shaft  having  reached 
a  point  1,200  feet  below  the  surface ;  but  the  heat  in  adjoining  mines  was 
'  nearly  as  great.  In  the  lower  workings  of  the  Chollar-Potosi  at  a  depth 
of  1,100  feet  the  thermometer  registered  100°  Fahr.  during  the  same 
month,*  and  110°  Fahr.  in  the  lower  level  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross  Mine.^ 
A  very  marked  reduction  of  temperature  was  noted  as  soon  as  the  blowers 
were  fairly  in  operation.  The  thermometer  in  the  lower  level  of  the  Hale 
&  Norcross  Mine  fell  from  100°  to  90°  Fahr.  in  the  course  of  a  few  days 


I  Gold  Hill  News,  December  29, 1866.  '  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  7,  1868. 

=  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  11,  1868.  *Ibvi.,  August  7,  1868. 

5 /6irf.,  August  20,  1868. 


392  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

after  their  blower  (Root  patent  No.  3)  began  to  force  air  into  the  mine 
through  tubing  of  galvanized  iron.^  In  the  Chollar-Potosi  Mine  conduit 
boxes  of  red-wood  were  used  instead  of  iron  tubing,^  but  the  comparative 
nonconductivity  of  the  wood  did  not  offset  other  relative  disadvantages.^ 
By  the  aid  of  these  blowers  the  normal  heat  of  the  drift-headings  has  been 
materially  reduced;  yet  even  ten  years  ago  the  atmosphere  at  certain  points 
could  scarcely  be  made  endurable.  In  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine,  June  11, 
1870,  though  blowers  were  constantly  at  work,  the  temperature  of  the 
900-foot  level  at  points  300  feet  distant  from  the  shaft  was  97°  Fahr.,  and 
the  miners  were  working  almost  stark  naked  at  the  breasts.  At  the  shaft, 
on  the  same  day,  the  thermometer  marked  87°  Fahr.*  As  the  work  of 
development  progressed  it  was  clearly  noted  that  the  points  of  greatest 
heat  in  the  lode  shifted  from  one  section  to  another,  and  that  there  was 
no  uniform  increase  of  temperature  at  successive  levels.^  Thus  a  mine 
which  had  been  the  hottest  on  the  lode  in  1870  might  be  the  coolest  in 
1871 ;  for  the  uncovering  of  hot-water  springs  would  raise  the  tempera- 
ture of  a  level  many  degrees  in  a  few  hours,  while  six  months  later,  when 
the  springs  were  pumped  dry,  the  atmosphere  would  again  become  com- 
paratively cool.  So,  in  the  1,400-foot  level  of  the  Crown  Point  Mine,  a 
stream  of  water  gushed  from  a  drill-hole,  in  June,  1873,  so  hot  that  eggs 
could  readily  be  cooked  in  it,  and  work  at  this  point  was  seriously  retarded 
in  consequence;*'  yet  before  the  end  of  the  year,  with  the  slackening  of 
the  water-flow,  the  temperature  of  the  level  fell  many  degrees. 

Though  the  heat  did  not  increase  proportionately  to  the  progress  in 
depth,  so  far  as  observed,  yet  as  the  shafts  drew  near  to  the  Sutro  Tunnel 
level  the  atmosphere  in  nearly  all  the  mines  became  so  hot  that  the 
work  of  exploration  along  the  line  of  the  lode  was  attended  with  much 

•  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  7, 20, 1868.  "  Ibid,  August  19, 1868. 

'  The  diameter  of  the  iron  pipes  ranges  from  8  to  20  inches,  but  the  size  found  to  be  most  serviceable  is  11 
inches  in  diameter.  About  700  cubic  feet  of  air  are  blown  through  a  pipe  per  minute,  famishing  a  supply  for 
from  two  to  six  men  at  the  face  of  a  heading.  The  air  passes  through  the  pipe  with  a  velocity  of  1,000  feet  per 
minute  and  returns  through  the  drift  at  a  rate  of  from  35  to  40  feet  per  minute.  Its  temperature  at  the  mouth  of 
the  pipe  ranges  commonly  ii-om  85°  to  90°  Fahr. — "  The  Comstock  Lode,"  p.  188;  John  A.  Church,  E.  M. 

*  Gold  Hill  News,  June  13,  1870. 

'  Vide,  in  this  connection,  "  The  Comstock  Lode,"  p.  184 ;   John  A.  Church,  E.  M. 
«  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  27, 1873. 


PAINS  AND  PEEILS  OF  MINING.  393 

suffering.  Sometimes,  no  doubt,  extreme  suffering  was  needlessly  caused 
by  neglect  to  establish  the  necessary  air-current,  as  in  the  1,850-foot  level 
of  the  Bullion  Mine,  when  a  drift  opened  from  the  Imperial  shaft  attained 
a  length  of  1,700  feet  before  any  attempt  was  made  to  secure  proper 
ventilation.  The  thermometer  at  the  end  of  the  drift  registered  a  temper- 
ature ranging  from  130°  to  140°  Fahr.,  and  work  was  naturally  most  pain- 
ful and  costly;  but  when  connection  was  made  with  an  adjoining  shaft 
the  thermometer  fell  rapidly  from  138°  to  100  Fahr.^  Such  heedlessness 
was,  however,  uncommon ;  the  great  air-currents  which  passed  down  the 
shafts  were  generally  well  utilized.  How  abundant  a  supply  was  thus 
furnished  in  1877  has  been  carefully  calculated.  The  velocity  of  the  air 
rising  from  eleven  different  shafts  ranged  from  200  to  900  feet  per  minute, 
and  the  average  velocity  was  400  feet  per  minute ;  288,630  cubic  feet  of 
air  were  issuing  momently  from  the  shafts,  and  as  two  upcast  currents 
were  inaccessible,  it  was  safe  to  estimate  the  total  outflow  at  300,000  cubic 
feet,  or  Hi  tons,  per  minute.  The  natural  influx  of  air  supplied  most  of 
this  efflux;  but  it  was  computed  that  10,000  cubic  feet  were  forced  in 
by  air-compressors  and  30,000  cubic  feet  by  blowers.^  By  the  issuing 
air -currents  and  by  the  water  drawn  from  the  mines  through  the 
pumps  it  was  computed  the  rocks  were  losing  as  much  heat  yearly 
as  28,601  tons  of  carbon  would  yield;  or,  in  other  words,  the  ordinary 
operations  of  mining  were  abstracting  yearly  from  the  rocks  as  much 
heat  as  55,472  tons  of  anthracite  produce  in  the  best  manufacturing 
usage.^ 

Yet,  in  spite  of  this  extraordinary  abstraction  of  heat  and  the  inpour- 
ing  volumes  of  fresh  air,  the  atmosphere  of  the  lower  levels  was  most 
oppressive.*  Tons  of  ice  were  sent  down  daily  into  the  mines  f  the  half- 
fainting  men  chewed  fragments  greedily  to  cool  their  parched  throats,  and 
carried  lumps  in  their  clinched  hands  through  the  drifts ;  iced  water 
from  the  tanks  was  drank  in  extraordinary  quantities.     In  the  hotter 

»  "  The  Comstock  Lode,"  p.  19;   John  A.  Church,  E.  M. 

»/*«;.,  p.  18. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  159. 

*  Territorial  Enterprise,  August  4,  1877. 

^Ihid.,  Octoher26,  1877. 


394  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

levels  three  gallons  was  a  moderate  allowance  for  one  man  during  a  shift 
of  8  hours ;  ^  and  95  pounds  of  ice  was  the  average  daily  consumption  of 
every  miner  employed  in  the  hottest  workings  of  the  California  and  Con- 
solidated Virginia  mines  during  the  summer  of  1878.^  If  power-drills 
had  not  been  in  general  use  the  work  of  exploration  would  probably  have 
come  to  a  close.  To  penetrate  hard  rock  while  breathing  such  an  atmos- 
phere would  have  taxed  human  endurance  too  greatly;  even  to  cut  out 
the  decomposed  feldspar  with  light  steel  picks  was  a  painful  labor.  At 
some  slopes  in  the  great  ore-body  of  the  California  and  Consolidated  Vir- 
ginia mines  four  miners  could  scarcely  do  the  ordinary  work  of  one  man 
in  a  moderately  cool  drift  ;^  yet  no  mines  were  more  carefully  ventilated 
than  these.  When  the  incline  from  the  Savage  Mine  shaft  uncovered  a  hot 
spring,  in  July,  1877,  ordinary  miners  would  have  refused  to  press  the 
work  farther.  The  temperature  of  the  water  as  it  issued  from  the  rock 
was  157°  Fahr.,  and  the  incline  was  filled  with  almost  scalding  vapor ; 
picks  could  only  be  handled  with  gloves,  and  rags  soaked  in  ice-water 
were  wrapped  about  the  iron  drills.*  Men  could  only  stand  for  a  few 
minutes  at  a  time  near  the  hot  fountain,  and  the  work  was  carried  on  by 
successive  relays.  At  the  head  of  the  incline,  where  it  was  necessary 
to  attach  a  V-bob  to  the  pump-rod,  the  atmosphere  was  oppressive  to  the 
last  degree  of  endurance.  The  station  was  only  comparable,  wrote  a 
careful  observer,  to  the  hottest  of  the  vapor-baths  at  Steamboat  Springs.^ 
Here  the  men  employed  could  not  leave  their  work  as  often  as  the  miners 
who  guided  the  drills,  but  were  forced  to  breathe  this  suffocating  vapor 
till  they  often  staggered  forth  from  the  station  half  blinded  and  bent  by 
agonizing  cramps.  When  the  pain  was  so  great  that  men  began  to  rave 
or  talk  incoherently  their  companions  would  quickly  take  them  up  and 
carry  them  to  the  coolest  place  on  the  level,  where  they  were  subjected 
to  a  vigorous  rubbing  on  all  parts  of  the  body,  but  particularly  on  the  pit 
of  the  stomach.     When  the  so-called  "stomach-knots"  disappeared  under 

'  "  The  Comstock  Lode,"  John  A.  Church,  E.  M. 
«  Territorial  Euterprise,  July  27,  1878. 

*Ibid.,  October  26,  1877. 
6  7iid.,  February  2,  1878. 


PAINS  AND  PEEILS  OF  MINING.  395 

the  friendly  hands  the  checked  perspiration  again  began  to  flow,  and  the 
men  regained  their  senses.^  Sometimes,  however,  the  effects  were  more 
lasting,  as  when  Thomas  Brown,  a  miner  at  work  on  the  1,900-foot  level 
of  the  Gould  &  Gurry  Mine  (May  10,  1878),  fainted  and  fell  on  the  track 
floor,  having  been  breathing  for  some  time  an  atmosphere  whose  tempera- 
ture was  128°  Fahr.  He  was  carried  at  once  to  the  surface,  but  continued 
in  a  dazed  condition  for  some  time,  having  lost  his  memory,  and  babbling 
like  a  young  child.^ 

It  may  easily  be  understood  that  work  could  rarely  be  carried  on  at  a 
profit  when  men  were  exposed  to  a  heat  like  this.  Thus,  even  in  the  case  of 
the  great  Gonsolidated  Virginia  bonanza,  an  ore-body  of  exceptional  rich- 
ness, it  was  judged  expedient  to  discharge  a  large  part  of  the  working 
force  until  the  temperature  of  the  lower  levels  could  be  reduced  to  a 
bearable  degree  by  extended  drift  connections  and  the  consequent  injection 
of  cool  surface-air  from  the  blower-tubes.^  On  the  1,600  and  1,700-foot 
levels  the  heat  of  the  atmosphere,  even  at  the  stations,  was  104°  Fahr.  in 
November,  1878,"  and  on  the  1,750  and  1,850-foot  levels  it  was  108°  Fahr.« 
Such  heat,  though  oppressive,  might  appear  endurable,  but  often  the  record 
of  temperature  gives  only  a  faint  idea  of  the  real  condition  of  the  atmos- 
phere. A  degree  of  heat  which  could  be  borne  without  discomfort  in  a  Rus- 
sian bath-house  of  modern  design,  where  the  air  is  pure  and  no  draughts 
are  felt,  would  be  extremely  painful  in  the  galleries  of  a  mine.  Sometimes 
hot  vapor  fills  the  drifts  charged  with  nauseous  exhalations  from  the 
springs  and  rotting  timbers.  Even  when  the  air  is  dry  the  breath  of  the 
miners  soon  vitiates  it  in  most  working  stations,  and  the  lungs  are  con- 
stantly oppressed  from  lack  of  oxygen.  In  this  atmosphere  men  soon  grow 
faint,  even  when  puffs  of  fresh  air  from  the  mouths  of  blower-tubes  are 
blown  about  their  heads  unremittingly.  Hot  draughts  are  more  annoying 
than  a  still  atmosphere  of  equal  temperature,  for  when  hot  foul  air  is  in 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  July  27,  1878. 

2  JSjrf.,  May  11,1878. 

■>IUd.,  November  13,  14,  15,  1878. 

4Z6id.,  November  14,  1878. 

^Jbid.,  November  15,  1878. 


396  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

rapid  motion  it  is  scarcely  respirable.^  When  it  is  considered,  moreover, 
that  no  exertion  is  required  in  a  Russian  bath,  while  in  the  mines  the 
labor  is  most  fatiguing,  the  difference  in  the  conditions  Avill  be  apparent. 
If  then  the  heat  actually  equals  or  exceeds  the  temperature  of  the  hottest 
bath,  as  it  did  in  some  drifts,  the  suiTerings  of  the  miners  may  be  imag- 
ined. In  cutting  a  drift  along  the  west  wall  of  the  lode  on  the  2,000-foot 
level  of  the  Imperial  Mine  the  miners  were  only  able  to  advance  by  board- 
ing the  sides  of  the  drift  with  a  double  layer  of  planks,  carefully  breaking 
joints  and  calking  the  inner  seams  with  tow,  for  the  water  which  streamed 
from  the  rocks  was  so  hot  that  a  jet  of  scalding  vapor  would  enter  the 
drift  whenever  a  strip  of  tow  was  pulled  from  a  seam  in  the  lagging.^  The 
heat  of  the  air  confined  between  the  planks  and  the  rock  was  not  noted, 
but  within  a  similar  bulkhead  in  the  Crown  Point  Mine,  2,000  feet  from 
the  surface,  the  temperature  was  150°  Fahr.,  and  only  16  degrees  less  in 
the  open  drift.  Work  on  the  1,900-foot  level  of  the  Ophir  Mine,  in  1878, 
was  almost  equally  trying  to  the  miners,^  and  it  was  scarcely  possible  to 
cut  the  east  drift  on  the  2,200-foot  level  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  Mine  in  1879, 
in  order  to  make  a  connection  with  the  new  shaft,  for  the  thermometer 
registered  134°  Fahr.  at  the  face  of  the  heading;*  and  one  might  say  with 
truth,  as  of  another  mine  gallery,  that  the  drift  was  a  place  for  salamanders 
rather  than  men.® 

Up  to  the  end  of  1877  the  highest  recorded  water  temperature  was 
154°  Fahr.,  and  large  sections  of  the  lode  rock  at  the  2,000-foot  level  had 
a  nearly  uniform  temperature  of  130°.^  The  highest  water  temperature 
previously  noted  in  other  mines  was  125°  Fahr.,  at  the  Huel  Clifford,  in 
Cornwall,  by  J.  A.  Phillips.  During  the  past  three  years  an  increase  in 
water  temperature  to  170  degrees  Fahr.  has  been  recorded,'  and  it  may 


'  Records  of  miners'  testimony  made  by  agents  of  U.  S.  Census,  1880. 
»  "The  Comstock  Lode,"  p.  183;  John  A.  Church,  E.  M. 
'Territorial  Enterprise,  February  2,  3,  1878. 
*Ibid.,  February  8,  1879. 
^IMd.,  February  2,  1878. 

6  The  Comstock  Lode,  p.  188;  John  A.  Church,  E.  M.    Vide  also  table  of  temperatures— air,  water,  and 
rock ;   The  Comstock  Lode,  pp.  179-182. 

'At  the  bottom  of  the  Yellow  Jacket  shaft;  Geo.  F.  Becker,  U.  S.  Geological  Survey. 


PAINS  AND  PERILS  OF  MINING. 


397 


safely  be  said  that  the  Comstock  mines  are  the  hottest  by  far  in  the  world. ^ 
Yet  for  the  sake  of  high  wages  and  the  information  which  gamblers  prize, 
men  were  willing  to  suffer  this  heat  and  continue  the  search  for  ore.  Their 
service  demonstrates  anew  how  elastic  are  the  limits  of  human  endurance 
when  men  are  drawn  on  by  some  masterful  passion.  The  bounds  of 
possibility  then  confine  their  achievements,  but  not  their  attempts. 
Lured  by  a  golden  cup  the  diver,  Nicolas,  casts  himself  headlong  into  the 
whirlpool  of  Gharybdis;  tempted  by  the  silver  of  the  Comstock  mines, 
men  will  explore  their  depths  until  they  drop  dead  at  the  stopes.  Death 
alone  has  the  power  to  say  to  miners:  "Thus  far  shall  ye  go  and  no  far- 
ther!" for  no  endurable  suffering  will  bar  their  progress;  nor  will  the 
loss  of  life  even  make  them  pause,  unless  the  scourge  of  heat  shall  strike 
them  down  like  a  pestilence.  Of  late  years  heat  has  killed  strong  men  in 
almost  every  deep  mine  on  the  lode,  and  in  some  mines  the  deaths  so 
caused  have  been  frequent.    Thus,  in  November,  1876,  a  young  Irishman 


'  The  most  exact  determination  of  tlie  temperature  of  the  rock  of  the  Comstock  mining  district  to  the  depth 
of  2,100  feet  was  made  during  the  period  from  September,  1878,  to  August,  1881,  at  the  Combination  shaft  of  the 
Overman,  Caledonia,  Belcher,  Crown  Poiut,  and  Segregated  Belcher  Mining  Companies  (The  Forman  shaft). 
The  temperatures  were  ascertained  by  drilling  holes  not  less  than  three  feet  deep  into  the  rock  and  inserting  a 
Negretti  and  Zambra  slow-acting  thermometer.  The  holes  were  then  closed  with  clay,  and  the  thermometer 
allowed  to  remain  in  contact  with  the  rock  for  twelve  hours.     Three  holes  were  tried  at  every  level. 


Depth. 

Tempeeatuee. 

Depth. 

Tempeoatube. 

Feet. 

o 

Feel. 

o 

100 

50i 

1,200 

89i 

200 

55 

1,300 

914 

300 

62 

1,400 

96i 

400 

60 

1,500 

101 

.500 

68 

1,600 

103 

600 

71* 

1,700 

1044 

700 

74J 

1,800 

1054 

800 

76J- 

1,900 

106 

900 

78 

2,000 

111 

1,000 

81i 

2,100 

1194 

1,100 

84 

It  will  be  seen  that  although  there  is  upon  the  whole  an  increase  of  temperature  as  depth  is  attained,  yet  the 
rate  of  increase  is  not  uniform.  As  the  temperature  at  different  sections  of  the  lode  varies  also  considerably,  and 
as  the  Forman  shaft  is  sunk  in  the  country  rock  several  hundred  yards  to  the  east  of  the  lode  croppings,  the 
experiments  cannot  be  considered  as  furnishing  a  complete  or  satisfactory  record  of  lode  temperatures  with  prog 
ress  in  depth. 


398  flISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

was  taken  up  dead  in  the  incline  of  the  Imperial  Mine  at  the  1,700-foot 
level/  and  only  a  month  later  another  lifeless  body  was  found  in  the  same 
level,  where  the  heat  was  115°  Fahr.^  Yet  even  repeated  warnings  are  not 
heeded,  and  often  men  will  not  realize  their  danger  till  their  lives  are  sac- 
rificed; for  a  novice  to  work  persistently  in  such  an  atmosphere  was 
almost  surely  fatal.  So  when  Thomas  Wilson  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  his 
companions  on  the  2,000-foot  level  of  the  same  rock  furnace,  who  urged 
him  to  go  to  the  cooling  station,  no  one  was  surprised  to  see  him  drop  his 
pick  and  fall  dead  at  his  post,  March  2,  1877.^  Three  deaths  from  heat 
within  a  hundred  days  is  a  significant  record,  but  the  places  of  the 
dead  miners  were  filled  before  their  bodies  were  buried.  Even  this 
record  of  mortality  was  surpassed  during  the  following  year,  when  three 
men  were  asphyxiated  by  heat  and  foul  air  while  climbing  up  a  winze 
from  the  1,900-1,700-foot  level  in  the  Gould  and  Curry  Mine.  A  ther- 
mometer indicated  that  the  temperature  at  the  point  where  they  died  was 
135°  Fahr.* 

To  lie  gasping,  with  swollen  veins  and  purple  face,  on  a  hot  rock  floor 
until  the  dull  eyes  are  glazed  in  death  is  a  dreadful  fate,  but  not  so  agoniz- 
ing as  another  mode  of  torturing  by  heat  in  the  mines  of  the  lode.  The 
hot  water  which  spouted  from  the  rocks  stood  in  deep  pools  at  the  bottom 
of  inclines  or  the  foot  of  shafts.  A  misstep  or  slip  would  sometimes  cause 
men  to  fall  into  these  deadly  baths,  from  which  they  crawled  or  were 
dragged  only  to  linger  a  few  hours  in  hopeless  misery.  So  John  Exley 
died  in  April,  1877,  having  fallen  into  the  sump  of  the  Hale  &  Norcross 
Mine  incline,  then  a  little  below  the  1,900-foot  level.  Though  the  water 
only  covered  his  hips,  and  he  was  immediately  plucked  out,  the  skin  fell 
off  his  limbs  from  his  knees  down,  and  unremitting  care  could  not  save  his 
life.^  Eight  months  later  Michael  Comerford  rolled  into  the  sump  of  the 
same  incline,  then  one  hundred  feet  deeper,  and  perished  miserably  after 
one  despairing  effort  to  pull  himself  out  by  clutching  at  the  clay-besmeared 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  2,  1876. 
'^Ibid.,  December  27,  1876. 
^Ihid.,  March  3,  1877. 
*IUd.,  June  4,  1878. 
6  Ibid  ,  April  17,  1877. 


PAINS  AND  PERILS  OF  MINING.  399 

timbers  above  his  liead.  Marlis  of  his  fingers  in  the  slime  were  seen  by 
the  paiiy  in  searcli  of  the  missing  man,  and  the  ghastly,  flesh-cracked 
corpse  was  dragged  up.  from  the  bottom  of  the  incline  with  a  pole  and 
hook.  The  heat  of  the  water  in  this  sump  was  then  157°  Fahr.^  To  drag 
a  man  alive  from  such  a  pool  was  a  cruel  service,  as  was  afterwards  noted 
when  William  Jenkins  was  taken  from  the  sump  of  the  Julia  Mine  shaft, 
February  5,  1879.  Though  immersed  only  a  few  seconds  in  the  water, 
whose  temperature  was  158°  Fahr.,  he  was  literally  flayed  alive  and  cried 
for  death,  though  his  sufferings  were  somewhat  relieved  by  injections  of 
morphine.^ 

Even  if  men  escaped  the  dangers  of  scalding  and  suffocation,  they 
were  exposed  to  another  peril  arising  from  the  heat.  The  miners  in  the 
hot  levels  were  subjected  to  most  trying  changes  of  temperature  in  ascend- 
ing the  shafts  on  the  swift-moving  cages.  The  passage  of  two  thousand 
feet  in  winter  was  like  a  magical  transfer  from  Guiana  to  Spitzbergen.  In 
three  minutes  men  who  had  been  sweltering  naked  in  a  stifling  atmos- 
phere might  be  lifted  up  into  the  chill  air  of  bleak  hills  where  a  snow- 
storm was  raging.  As  an  elastic  bow,  if  bent  too  suddenly,  may  break,  so 
a  strong  man,  who  can  endure  great  heat  or  cold,  may  succumb  to  the 
shock  of  a  quick  alternation  from  one  extreme  to  the  other.  Hence  it  was 
that  men  who  stood  shivering  on  the  iron  bars  of  the  cage  floor  often  felt 
a  sudden  nausea  and  dizziness  as  they  were  borne  up  the  shaft.  Then,  if 
their  companions  did  not  support  them  with  ready  and  strong  arms,  the 
fainting  men  would  lose  their  firm  grip  of  the  bar  and  sink  helplessly 
against  the  timbers  of  the  shaft,  to  be  instantly  crushed  by  the  iron  sides 
of  the  cage  and  fall  mangled  to  the  sump.  Such  a  fate  was  horrible  to 
witness,  yet  so  great  was  the  speed  of  the  cages  that  the  victims  must 
have  died  with  scarcely  an  instanfs  pang,  and  even  that  agony  was  dulled 
by  the  ^existing  stupor.  Thus  the  death  of  a  young  Nova  Scotian  miner 
in  the  shaft  of  the  Consolidated  Imperial  Mine,  December  12,  1876, 
was  less  painful  probably  than  the  deaths  of  the  three  miners  who 
perished  during  the  same  fatal  period  of  intense  heat  before  noted,  though 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  23,  1877. 
■lUd.,  February  7,  1879. 


400  HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

his  head,  legs,  and  arms  were  torn  off,  and  the  shapeless  remains  of  a 
body  which  had  been  a  model  of  manly  vigor  were  brought  to  the  surface 
in  a  blanket.^ 

Men  who  will  face  such  suffering  and  peril  daily  are  men  of  no  ordi- 
nary hardihood.  Custom,  it  is  true,  has  inured  them  to  their  surround- 
ings. When  men  first  begin  work  in  hot  mines  they  lose  their  strength 
almost  invariably,  and  the  slightest  exertion  is  burdensome.  They  feel 
no  desire  to  eat,  and  the  stomach  commonly  rejects  whatever  food  is  taken. 
Ordinarily,  also,  the  decrease  in  their  weight  is  very  considerable.  This 
condition  of  body  does  not  last  more  than  three  or  four  days  usually. 
Then  the  men  regain  their  vigor  and  flesh  rapidly;  their  appetite  returns 
and  their  health  does  not  visibly  suffer.  In  many  instances  the  effect  of  the 
heat  is  clearly  beneficial.  By  the  exercise  of  care  in  avoiding  sudden  chills 
rheumatic  affections  are  eradicated;  all  impurities  of  the  blood  are  rapidly 
purged  from  the  system;  boils,  pimples,  and  other  skin  eruptions  soon 
disappear;  the  flesh  becomes  plump  and  firm;  the  glands  secrete  oil  rap- 
idly ;  the  skin  grows  smooth  and  slippery  to  the  touch,  and  the  complexion 
is  clear,  if  somewhat  sallow.^ 

The  ultimate  effect  of  this  extreme  heat  on  the  miner's  constitution  is 
not  so  easily  noted.  The  mine  levels  differ  so  materially  in  temperature, 
and  the  assigned  station  of  a  miner  is  so  frequently  changed  from  one 
cause  and  another,  that  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  at  present  complete 
comparative  data.  That  prolonged  labor  in  a  hot,  impure  atmosphere 
will  assuredly  shorten  life  appears  indisputable;  but  whether  the  system 
is  permanently  or  materially  injured  by  intermittent  work  under  these 
conditions  is  more  questionable.  The  power  of  recuperation  appears 
extraordinary,  and,  unless  the  strain  is  intense  and  frequent,  no  lasting 
injury  may  be  inflicted.^  The  limits  of  permissible  strains  will,  of  course, 
vary  with  the  relative  power  of  endurance. 


■  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  13,  1876. 

•Record  of  testimony  procured  by  United  States  Census  Agents,  1880. 

'Records  and  testimony  as  to  the  injury  to  health  resulting  fi-om  labor  in  the  hot  levels  of  the  Comstock 
mines  differ  materially  from  the  conclusions  reached  by  Dr.  Paul  Fabre,  from  his  study  of  the  diseases  of  miners. 
Article  in  Popular  Science  Monthly,  March,  1881. 


PAmS  AND  PEEILS  OF  MINING.  401 

The  action  of  all  the  bodily  organs  appears  to  be  stimulated  by  the 
heat,  with  the  exception  of  the  stomach  alone.  The  food  of  the  ordinary 
laborer  is  unpalatable  to  the  miner  in  the  hot  levels,  and  coarse,  ill-cooked 
provisions  would  not  be  accepted  or  digested  readily.  The  men  crave 
fruits  and  highly-seasoned  dishes,  pickles,  salads,  pig's  feet,  hams — almost 
any  food  with  a  pure  acid  or  salt  flavor.  They  demand  and  obtain  the 
best  supplies  in  the  market  to  gratify  their  natural  craving  and  squeam- 
ishness  of  taste.^  The  delicate  condition  of  their  digestive  powers  is, 
undoubtedly,  due  to  the  quantity  of  iced-water  which  they  drink  as  much 
as  to  the  heat  which  they  undergo.  Yet  they  must  have  cool  drinks  at 
frequent  intervals,  and  feverish  men  cannot  be  expected  to  gauge  carefully 
the  quantity  or  the  coldness  of  the  water  which  they  need.  If  the  tem- 
perature of  the  water-tanks  was  regulated  by  the  mine  superintendents 
their  employes  would  be  less  subject  to  dyspepsia. 

Aside  from  the  perils  arising  from  the  exceptional  heat  of  the  Com- 
stock  Lode,  it  would  appear  also  that  the  ordinary  dangers  of  deep  mining 
exist  there  in  aggravated  forms.  The  gangue  of  the  lode  is  decomposed 
feldspar — a  conglomerate  of  brittle  quartz  and  swelling  clay;  hence  the 
Vi^alls  and  roof  of  the  galleries  need  firm  buttresses  of  timber,  and  nowhere 
can  the  crumbling  rock  be  trusted  to  its  own  cohesion  without  a  prop. 
The  clay  seams  on  exposure  to  air  swell  and  separate  in  heavy  flakes  from 
the  walls.  The  rotten  quartz  cracks  under  the  pressure  from  above  until 
the  trembling  roof  gapes  open  suddenly  and  the  passage  is  choked  by 
masses  of  fallen  rock.  If  men  are  working  in  the  drift  when  the  walls 
cave  in  they  rarely  escape  with  life,  and  the  roll  of  deaths  from  this  cause 
in  the  Comstock  mines  is  unusually  large.  This  disproportionate  mortal- 
ity has  not  arisen  from  any  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  superintendents 
since  the  early  years  of  the  development  of  the  lode;  nor  was  it  attrib- 
utable at  any  time  to  a  wretched  parsimony  which  restricted  the  use  of 
mine-timbers,  but  rather  to  the  treacherous  nature  of  the  gangue  and  the 
recklessness  of  miners,  who  sometimes  disregard  orders  and  necessary 
precautions. 

'  Record  of  testimony  procured  by  United  States  Census  Agents,  1880. 

26  H  c 


402  HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

The  very  perfection  of  the  present  machinery  for  raising  and  lowering 
the  cages  into  the  shafts  has  been  a  prolific  source  of  danger  to  life. 
Such  high  speed  is  attained  by  the  engines  that  a  moment  of  heedlessness 
or  indecision  has  often  proved  fatal.  One  careless  motion  of  a  miner  in 
passing  through  the  shaft  may  sever  a  leg,  an  arm,  a  head,  or  hurl  his 
bleeding  body  from  timber  to  timber  till  it  drops  shapeless  and  crushed 
into  the  hot  pool  at  the  bottom.  The  accumulated  momentum  of  a  body 
in  falling  from'  an  upper  level  to  the  foot  of  a  deep  shaft  is  sufficient  to 
reduce  the  bones  to  pulp  if  any  hard  substance  is  struck  in  its  descent. 
In  July,  1867,  a  miner  weighing  180  pounds  fell  down  the  Crown  Point 
Mine  shaft,  a  distance  of  410  feet,  breaking  a  plank  three  inches  in  thick- 
ness as  if  it  were  a  pipe-stem.  The  men  at  the  lower  station,  where  the 
plank  extended  across  the  shaft,  could  not  see  what  substance  snapped  the 
timber.^  Even  an  iron  barrier  will  be  broken  through  by  such  a  blow,  as 
was  shown  in  December,  1873,  when  a  man  dropped  down  the  shaft  of  the 
Consolidated  Virginia  Mine  upon  a  cage  filled  with  miners,  1,200  feet  below 
the  initial  point  of  his  fall.  The  strong  iron  covering  or  bonnet  of  the  cage 
was  bent  and  broken,  and  the  body  of  the  unfortunate  miner  was  literally 
crushed  into  pulp.^  Or  if  an  engineer  fails  to  watch  the  gliding  cable  with 
keen  eye,  the  cage  may  pass  its  destined  station  and  plunge  into  the  sump 
or  be  drawn  violently  against  the  sheave-frame  in  the  hoisting  works. 
Thus  John  Sinnott  was  crushed  between  a  cage  and  the  bottom  of  the 
Savage  Mine  shaft  in  November,  1869,  so  that  his  ankle  bone  was  driven 
through  the  stout  india-rubber  boot  which  he  wore.^  And,  to  cite  one  of 
a  number  of  instances,  the  fatal  accident  at  the  Union  shaft,  in  Decem- 
ber, 1879,  shows  how  even  a  careful  and  strictly  temperate  engineer  may 
lose  his  presence  of  mind  and  allow  a  cage  full  of  men  to  be  drawn  into 
the  sheave. 

The  engineer  was  hoisting  a  cage  and  skip  on  which  were  seventeen 
men  from  the  bottom  of  the  shaft.  As  the  load  neared  the  surface  he 
pulled  the  lever  of  his  engine,  intending  to  shut  off  the  steam,  but, 

'  Sacramento  Union,  July  18,  1867. 
»  Gold  Hill  News,  November  15,  1873. 
^Ibid.,  November  8,  1869. 


PAINS  AND  PEEILS  OF  MINING.  403 

strangely  enough,  gave  a  wrong  turn  to  the  lever,  and  the  cage  shot 
upward  with  a  sudden  bound  under  the  increased  pressure.  In  the  effort 
to  rectify  his  mistake  he  blundered  again  in  the  same  way,  and  in  a 
moment  the  cage  was  torn  out  of  the  shaft  as  if  shot  from  a  catapult. 
Streams  of  fire  flashed  from  the  guides  as  the  cage  went  up,  and  a  bluish 
light  appeared  on  its  iron  frame.  The  doomed  men  on  the  cage  uttered 
no  cry.  One  said  simply,  "Boys,  we're  gone!"  just  before  the  cage  struck 
the  gallows  frame  with  a  frightful  shock.  The  steel-wire  cable,  seven 
inches  in  width  and  three-quarters  of  an  inch  in  thickness,  was  snapped 
like  twine,  parting  with  a  report  "like  that  of  a  cannon."  The  whole 
building  was  shaken  to  its  foundations,  and  some  within  started  to  run 
out,  thinking  that  a  boiler  had  exploded.  The  iron  bonnet  of  the  cage 
was  crushed  flat  by  the  concussion,  and  the  men  on  the  cage  and  skip 
were  thrown  sprawling  over  the  floor  of  the  shaft-house.  Most  lay  sense- 
less for  a  time,  but  soon  one  after  another  began  to  raise  themselves  upon 
their  hands  and  knees  with  pitiful  groans.  Help  was  quickly  given  and 
the  suffering  men  were  removed,  but  the  floor  was  still  a  ghastly  sight 
with  its  stains  and  little  pools  of  blood.  Two  miners  died  of  their  wounds 
before  the  day  was  ended,  and  six  others,  at  least,  were  permanently 
injured.  Two  who  clung  to  the  shattered  cage,  and  one  who  caught  the 
bell-rope  by  a  desperate  leap,  were  marvelously  fortunate  in  escaping 
unhurt.^ 

To  describe  in  detail  the  manifold  ways  in  which  men  have  lost  their 
lives  in  these  mines  would  be  a  needless  catalogue  of  horrors.  How 
dynamite  and  powder  have  exploded  prematurely  or  tardily,  striking  down 
men  under  a  hail  of  rock  fragments ;  how  cables  have  broken  and  cages 
fallen  in  the  shafts ;  how  miners  have  been  crushed  by  falling  timbers 
and  buried  under  masses  of  quartz — these  and  other  like  accompaniments 
of  mine  development  present  no  distinctive  features  and  are  most  fitly 
recorded  in  a  general  summary. 

•  Territorial  Enterprise,  December  3,  1879. 


404 


HISTORY  OP  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 


Table 

of  accidents 

in  GomstocTc  Lode  mines  from  October  16,  1863,  to  June  19. 

1880." 

Tear. 

FATAL  ACCIDENTS. 

"S 

r 

SI 

l§ 

1 

to 

a 

1 

p 
1 

> 
O 

•a  tfl 
-£  a 

1.2  & 

14 

I 
■ga 

ill 
fc.  S  o 

a 

■« 

1 

w 

a 

a 

H 

1 

OOP 

"•SI 

III 

■§■31 

•<  P.5 

t3 

p 

Total. 

1863 
1804 
1805 
1806 
1807 
1808 
1809 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 

Total. 

1 

3 

3 
8 
6 
0 
6 
4 
6 

1 

1 

— 

6 
15 

8 
10 
11 

5 
49 

7 
11 
12 
14 
18 
20 
25 
22 
26 
26 
10 

1 

2 
1 

1 

1 

2 
2 
. 

7 

...  1 

1 

3 

— 

1 

1 
3 

1 

2 

37 

4 

-— 

2 

1 

2 
5 
6 
4 
12 
10 
S 
6 
6 
1 

3 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

6 
3 

2 
3 
4 
4 

1 
2 

1 

3 

1 
1 
2 
2 
2 
3 

— 

1 

2 
2 
4 

2 
1 
4 
4 
6 

"■ 

2 



1 
1 

6 
1 

1 
1 
. 

1 

3 
- 

g~ 

1 

.      .  1 

18 

19 

6 

1 

95 

20 

22 

13 

49 

9 

4 

23 

11 

295 

1863 
1864 
1805 
1800 
1667 
1808 
1809 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 

ACCIDENTS  NOT  REPOETED  AS  FATAL. 

1 
5 
8 
6 
2 
9 
1 

:::: 

1 
17 
25 
15 
22 
33 
15 
20 
33 
35 
35 
61 
65 
47 
50 
60 
53 
14 

1 
4 
2 
7 
7 
1 
5 
6 
4 
6 
8 
3 
4 
7 
2 
6 
3 

1 
1 

2 

4 
T 
1 
R 
8 
6 
6 
8 
3 
5 

12 
9 
5 
6 

14 
8 
2 

3 
4 
6 

5 

0 

2 

4 

8 

12 

10 

8 

21 

10 

3 

13 

2 

3 

2 
1 
1 
1 
3 
3 
2 
7 
4 
4 
11 
6 
3 
1 

5 

2 
4 
4 
5 
4 
4 
9 
9 
6 
1 
8 
21 

1 
3 
3 

4 
11 
7 
9 
9 
7 
1 

— 

. 

1 

3 



6 
2 
1 

7 

1 



5 

6 

"    l" 

2 

Total. 

75 

60 

8 

110 

120 

77 

10 

7 

9 

1 

8<i 

47 

606 

a  Record  compiled  from  files  of  newspapers  published  at  the  mines,  and  doubtless  incomplete,  but  best  now  attainable. 

The  most  noticeable  effect  of  the  exceptionably  high  rate  of  mortahty 
in  the  Comstock  mines  is  the  recklessness  of  temper  and  disposition 
toward  fatalism  which  is  thereby  engendered  among  the  miners.  When 
a  man  is  accustomed  to  incur  many  and  imminent  risks  of  death  daily,  he 
comes  at  length,  by  force  of  habit,  to  regard  them  lightly,  or  he  fosters  a 
stolidity  of  temperament  as  his  best  safeguard  against  nervous  apprehen- 
sions. If  the  fear  of  death  was  constantly  before  his  eyes  he  would  be 
unfit  for  work,  and  he  knows  that  coolness  is  a  sure  staff  in  time  of  dan- 
ger; hence  he  turns  his  mind,  as  far  as  possible,  from  thoughts  of  probable 


PAINS  AND  PERILS  OF  MINING.  405 

peril,  and  yet  is  prepared  to  act  promptly  and  energetically  when  the 
need  arises.  If  he  can  do  nothing  to  save  his  life  he  meets  his  death 
with  silent  fortitude,  as  did  the  company  of  seventeen  who  were  dashed 
against  the  sheave  at  the  Union  shaft.  He  expects  to  die  "when  his 
time  comes,"  but  sees  no  advantage  in  dying  a  hundred  deaths  from  fear 
before.  Though  few  of  the  miners  are  professedly  without  faith  in  the 
existence  of  a  God  and  a  future  life,  it  is  rare  that  one  prepares  himself 
for  death,  in  the  Christian  sense,  by  prayer  and  self-conimitment  to  a 
supreme  and  loving  Providence.  If  a  man  does  his  work  honestly  and 
well,  he  considers  that  in  so  doing  his  duty  on  earth  is  discharged.  He 
loves  life,  but  does  not  dread  death  except  as  an  end  to  the  only  life  of 
which  he  has  knowledge.  Their  fondness  for  gambling  leads  them  also 
to  regard  the  possibility  of  death  with  instilled  sang  froid,  as  a  risk  which 
every  gamester  must  face,  and  they  stake  their  lives  on  the  cast  because 
they  consider  the  chances  in  favor  of  their  preservation.  Hence,  if  by 
an  extraordinary  allotment  of  fortune  one  plucks  his  life  out  of  the  very 
jaws  of  death,  as  it  were,  he  is  not  particularly  elated  or  disposed  to 
thanksgiving,  but  regards  the  gain  much  as  the  inveterate  gambler  does 
his  winnings.  A  notable  case  in  point  is  that  of  the  Cornish  miner  who 
fell  into  the  mouth  of  the  Imperial  Mine  shaft,  October  30,  1876.  The 
shaft  was  1,300  feet  deep,  and  those  who  saw  him  fall  believed  that  he 
would  be  a  frightfully  mangled  corpse  in  a  moment.  By  an  astonishing 
combination  of  coolness,  strength,  and  luck  he  caught  hold  of  the  pump- 
bob  nose,  twenty  feet  below,  and  clung  to  it,  dangling  over  the  abyss 
until  rescued.  When  his  companions  had  lifted  him  out  of  the  shaft 
he  remarked,  coolly,  glancing  down  into  the  black  depths  of  the  great 
pit:  "By  the  bloody  'ell!  if  I  hadn't  caught  hold  of  the  bob  I'd  'a  been 
scattered  all  abroad!"^  Another  man  might  have  shuddered,  possibly, 
at  this  deadly  peril,  and  murmured  something  like  a  prayer  of  thanks 
for  his  preservation,  but  the  temper  shown  by  this  miner  is  an  extreme 
illustration  of  the  ordinary  mode  of  thought  among  the  men  of  his  class. 
Some  are  notably  religious  in  disposition  and  attend  regularly  at  the 
various  churches  of  the  district,  but  the  great  majority  are  not  troubled 

'  Territorial  Enterprise,  October  31,  1876;  Superintendent  of  Julia  and  Ward  Mines,  1880. 


406  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

about  the  state  of  their  souls  or  heavenly  concei-ns.  The  clergy  of  the 
towns  on  the  lode  find  the  hearts  of  the  miners  somewhat  thorny  ground 
apparently,  though,  no  doubt,  much  seed  that  is  choked,  to  all  outward 
seeming,  may  yet  blossom  and  bear  fruit.  It  is  worth  noting  that  the 
clergy  who  complain  least  of  the  apathy  of  the  miners  are  Catholic  priests, 
who  take  pains  to  come  nearer  to  their  parishioners  than  the  Protestant 
ministers  are  able  or  willing  to  do.  Hardened  hearts  have  never  yet  been 
melted  by  scolding  or  complaining,  and  the  idea  of  saving  souls  by  such 
ministration  is  absurd.  The  shrewder  Catholic  missionaries  see  this 
clearly,  and  devote  themselves  far  more  artfully  to  win  the  ears  and  hearts 
of  the  people;  for  they  pass  through  the  towns  with  frank,  friendly  greet- 
ings for  all,  entering  the  homes  of  the  miners — not  intrusively,  nor  by 
formal  "pastoral  calls,"  but  as  friends  and  counsellors — ready  to  play  a 
social  game  of  cards  on  occasion,  or  to  comfort  those  who  are  afflicted  by 
sickness  or  misfortune.  Bigoted  Puritans  may  snarl  at  some  of  the 
indulgent  ways  of  their  rivals,  and  comment  bitterly  on  the  results  of 
such  proselytizing,  but  it  is  certainly  a  close  imitation  of  the  method  of  St. 
Paul,  and  has  so  far  proved  the  only  effective  means  of  utilizing  a  church 
organization  in  mining  towns.  When  the  Protestant  denominations  real- 
ize this  and  send  men  to  mining  camps  who  are  not  wedded  to  formulas, 
or  creeds,  or  set  plans  of  worship,  but  who  are  content  to  go  about  doing 
good  in  the  ways  naturally  suggested  to  sensible,  practical  Christians, 
then  the  observer  will  not  note  as  now  the  predominant  and  growing 
power  of  the  Church  of  Rome,  the  relative  feebleness  of  the  Protestant 
sects,  and  the  despondency  of  their  ministers — for  the  Catholic  ritual  is 
too  full  of  forms  and  ceremonies  to  suit  the  simple,  rational  notions  of 
the  miners,  and  they  require  no  hierarchical  orders,  nor  intercessors  with 
God,  nor  any  part  of  the  cumbrous  system  of  mediation;  but  they  will 
welcome  any  man  who  comes  among  them  as  a  brother  to  joy  with  their 
joys,  grieve  with  their  griefs,  and  to  assure  them  that  there  is  a  God  who 
cares  for  them  like  as  a  father  pitieth  his  children.  One  such  pastor, 
who  knows  the  nature  and  the  needs  of  workingmen,  would  do  more  good 
than  a  hundred  of  the  dyspeptic  and  narrow-minded  divinity-school  grad- 
uates, of  whom  too  many  are  at  present  floundering  about  wretchedly  in 
the  uncongenial  currents  of  mining-camp  life. 


CHAPTER  XX. 
A  SIGNIFICANT  CONTRAST. 

The  fortunes  of  the  Comstock  mining  district  are  now  (1881) 
depressed.  Since  the  discovery  of  the  great  Consolidated  Virginia  (Cal- 
ifornia bonanza  in  1873-4)  no  new  ore-body  has  been  developed.  An 
over-sanguine  hope  of  such  a  discovery  did  indeed  puff  up  the  shares 
of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Mine  from  |2.90  on  May  14,  1878,  to  $270  four 
months  later,^ — 103,645  shares,  or  more  than  the  entire  stock  of  the 
mine  (100,000  shares),  being  sold  at  one  exchange  in  San  Francisco 
during  the  month  of  August.^  But  the  boom  culminated  during  the 
following  month,  and  in  spite  of  the  zeal  of  the  bulls  the  price  of  the 
stock  dropped  irresistibly  in  November  (1878)  from  |200  to  $39.  On 
the  2d  day  of  February,  1881,  the  value  set  upon  the  whole  lode  and 
its  costly  mine  works  in  the  stock  exchanges  was  only  $7,000,000,^ 
which  may  be  fairly  contrasted  with  the  valuation  (highest)  in  January, 
1875. 

'  Sau  Francisco  Evening  Bulletin,  November  6,  1878. 
•Commercial  Herald  (Stock  Report  Tables),  January  30, 1879. 
*  Fide  Territorial  Enterprise,  February  3,  1881. 


(407) 


408 


HISTOET  OF  THE  COMSTOGK  LODE. 


Valuation  of  GomstocJc  Mines,  February,  1881. 


Shares  in 

MINE. 


Price  per 

SHARE. 


Total. 


Utah 

Sierra  Nevada 

Union  Consolidated  — 

Mexican 

Ophir 

California 

Consolidated  Virginia . 

Best  &  Belcher 

Gould  &  Curry 

Savage  

Hale  «&  Norcross 

ChoUar 

Potosi 

Bullion .. 

Exchequer 

Alpha  

Consolidated  Imperial . 

Challenge 

Confidence 

Yellow  Jacket 

Ken  tuck 

Crown  Point 

Belcher 

Segregated  Belcher 

Overman 

Caledonia 


Total  value. 


20,000 
100, 000 
100, 000 
100, 800 
100,  800 
540, 000 
540, 000 
100, 800 
108, 000 
11-2, 000 
112, 000 
112, 000 
112,000 
100, 000 
100,  000 

30, 000 
500, 000 

50, 000 

24,960 
120, 000 

30,000 
100, 000 
104, 000 
6,400 
115,200 
100,000 


|5  50 
5  00 
8  50 
5  12 

5  00 
1  25 

1  90 

6  75 

2  ,50 
80 

2  90 
1  55 
1  75 
1  65 

1  10 

2  90 
05 
50 

2  25 

1  55 

1  25 

1  00 

80 

4  00 

60 

20 


$110, 000 

500, 000 

850, 000 

516,600 

504, 000 

675, 000 

1, 026, 000 

680, 400 

270, 000 

89, 600 

324, 800 

173, 600 

196, 000 

165, 000 

110, 000 

87, 000 

25,000 

25, 000 

56, 160 

186, 000 

37, 500 

100, 000 

83,200 

25,600 

69, 120 

20,000 


6,905,580 


A  SIGNIFICANT  CONTEAST. 


409 


Valuation  of  Gomstoch  Mines,  January,  1876.' 


Utah 

Sierra  Nevada 

Union  Consolidated    .. 

Mexican 

Ophir     

California 

Consolidated  Virginia  . 

Best  &  Belcher 

Gould  &  Curry 

Savage  

Hale  &  NorcroBB 

ChoUar-Potosi 

Bullion 

Exchequer 

Alpha 

Imperial 

Empire 

Eclipse 

French 

Bacon  M.  &  M.  Co 

Bowers 

(Unnamed  section) 

Challenge 

Confidence 

Yellow  Jacket ... 

Kentuck 

Crown  Point 

Belcher 

Segregated  Belcher  . . . 

Overman 

Caledonia 


Total  value . 


NlTMDER  OF 
FEET  IN  MINE. 


1,000 

3,300 

800 

600 

675 

600 

710 

540 

612 

771 

400 

1,400 

943 

400 

306 

184 

75 

70 

20 

65 

20 

34 

90 

130 

957 

95 

541 

1,040 

160 

1,200 

2,188 


Number  of 
shares  in  mine. 


20, 000 

100, 000 

20,000 

108, 000 

100,800 

108, 000 

108, 000 

100,800 

48, 000 

16,000 

16, 000 

28,  000 

100, 000 

8,000 

30, 000 

100, 000 

50, 000 

25, 000 

5,000 

4,000 

5,000 


50, 000 

24, 960 

24, 000 

30, 000 

100, 000 

104, 000 

6,400 

38,400 

20,000 


Price  per 

SUARE. 


fll  50 
27  00 
95  00 
85  00 

315  00 

780  00 

700  00 
89  00 
75  00 

190  00 
77  00 
94  00 
60  00 

425  00 
45  00 
23  50 
18  00 
14  50 
16  00 
10  00 
Estimated. 
...  do.  ... 
16  00 
59  00 

170  00 
37  00 
47  50 
57  50 

165  00 
99  00 
37  00 


Total. 


$230,000 

2,700,000 

1,900,000 

9, 180, 000 

31,752,000 

84,240,000 

75,600,000 

8,971,200 

3,600,000 

3,  040,  000 

1, 232,  000 

2,632,000 

6, 000,  000 

3,400,000 

1,350,000 

2, 350, 000 

900, 000 

362, 500 

80,000 

40, 000 

1.5,000 

25, 000 

80, 000 

1, 472, 640 

4, 080, 000 

1,110,000 

4,750,000 

5,980,000 

1,056,000 

3,801,600 

740, 000 


$262,669,940 


The  pride  of  the  cities  on  the  line  of  the  lode  is  broken.  The  prod- 
igal ideas  of  their  founders  have  been  succeeded  by  careful  calculations 
of  current  expenses.  A  civic  organization  was  believed  to  be  more  cum- 
brous and  costly  than  serviceable,  and  for  this  reason  the  city  government 
of  Virginia  ceased  to  exist  on  the  2d  of  May,  1881,  and  its  powers  were 


'  Vide  Table  V,  Appendix. 


410  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

transferred  to  the  board  of  county  commissioners.^  This  change  is  not 
likely  to  affect  the  future  development  of  the  mines  in  any  way  unfavor- 
ably. Whether  ore-bodies  whose  existence  is  now  unknown  will  be  dis- 
covered in  the  depths  yet  unsearched  is,  of  course,  uncertain.  The  great 
fissure,  filled  with  quartz,  clay,  and  barren  country  rock,  is  still  well 
defined,  and  the  whole  lode  is  impregnated  with  precious  metals,  but  no 
bonanzas  or  concentrations  of  metalliferous  deposits  have  rewarded  the 
persistent  search.  No  valid  argument  against  their  occurrence  has  been 
presented,  but  positive  evidence  of  their  existence  is  lacking. 

Prospecting  in  barren  mines  is  essentially  a  gambling  venture.  Faith, 
capital,  and  skill  are  necessary  to  prosecute  the  work  to  advantage,  and 
the  requisites  are  not  lacking.  The  body  of  small  investors  have  ceased, 
it  is  true,  to  contribute  liberally,  and  the  burden  of  assessments  no  longer 
rests  on  the  petty  shareholders,  but  has  been  shifted  upon  the  shoulders 
of  the  principal  mine  owners.  Yet  their  shoulders  are  broad  enough  to 
carry  the  load,  and  so  far  they  have  not  faltered  under  its  weight.  It  is 
fitting,  assuredly,  that  the  men  who  have  made  fortunes  in  the  mines 
should  be  the  last  to  abandon  them.  It  is  fair  that  they  should  under- 
take to  sustain  the  loss  during  periods  of  depression,  but  the  people  of 
the  district  would  have  no  just  cause  for  complaint  if  the  search  for  ore 
should  be  discontinued  and  the  mines  finally  closed.  No  obligation  rests 
on  any  man  to  expend  his  wealth  in  what  he  may  judge  to  be  a  fruitless 
quest,  and  no  one  can  fairly  be  expected  to  incur  risks  when  the  returns  in 
view  are  wholly  disproportionate.  The  time  may  come  when  even  such 
daring  speculators  as  Mackey  and  Fair  must  count  the  cost  of  their  ven- 
tures carefully  and  decide  to  try  fortune  no  more.  How  many  million 
dollar-s  they  are  ready  to  pay  out  before  this  termination  is  reached  they 
alone  know,  and  probably  even  they  themselves  cannot  fix  at  present  any 
definite  sum.  Beyond  question  their  decision  will  be  governed  by  devel- 
opments and  indications  yet  unknown.  Only  one  thing  is  certain — that 
they  will  not  readily  desert  a  field  where  they  have  gained  fortunes  unpre- 
cedented in  the  history  of  mining  and  staked  fortunes  upon  the  possibili- 
ties of  the  future. 


'  Virginia  City  Territorial  Enterprise,  May  3,  1881. 


A  SIGNIFICANT  CONTRAST.  411 

Seasons  of  borrasca  bring  to  view  the  best  qualities  of  men  like  these. 
The  cool  judgment  which  weighs  chances  and  indications  without  bias  or 
obstinacy,  the  faith  which  no  discouragements  can  shake,  the  resolution 
which  overrides  obstacles  and  holds  fast  in  spite  of  delays,  then  become 
apparent  to  all.  To  these  traits  is  largely  attributable  the  success  already 
won.  Of  the  future  no  one  can  predict,  but  the  past,  at  least,  is  secure. 
No  fair  observer  can  be  blind  to  its  record  and  ascribe  its  achievements  to 
chance  alone.  Luck  is  the  open  sesame  of  the  fatalist  and  sluggard;  it 
will  not  clear  the  way  to  all  treasure-chambers  nor  keep  their  doors  from 
closing.  Fortune  sometimes  favors  fools,  but  never  long,  and  men  who  fail 
to  use  opportunities  aright  soon  have  no  opportunities  to  misuse.  Herein 
lies  the  true  reason  why  their  early  good  fortune  was  of  so  little  advan- 
tage to  the  prospectors  of  1859 — the  discoverers  of  the  Comstock  Lode. 
In  1860  Mackey,  Fair,  and  Jones  were  poorer  than  Finney,  Comstock, 
McLaughlin,  and  O'Riley,  and  were  far  less  able  to  avail  themselves  of 
the  dawning  opportunities  for  enrichment  in  the  new  silver  district.  Yet 
to-day  what  is  the  record?  The  three  first-named  are  recognized  as  the 
foremost  silver  miners  of  America,  and  the  Comstock  Lode  has  been  to 
them  a  veritable  cave  of  Aladdin.  The  lucky  prospectors,  on  the  other 
hand,  are  dead  and  forgotten. 

The  toper,  Finney,  lived  only  a  few  years  after  locating  his  famous 
ledge,  eking  out  a  precarious  livelihood  by  bartering  feet  in  sundry  claims 
in  exchange  for  drink  and  food-money,  and  losing  his  life,  at  length,  June 
20,  1861,  by  falling  from  his  horse  and  fracturing  his  skull. ^ 

Comstock,  the  loud-voiced  impostor,  distinguished  himself  by  seduc- 
ing and  buying  a  wife  from  a  Mormon  for  a  horse,  a  revolver,  and  sixty 
dollars  in  money,  but  could  not  keep  her  from  running  away  at  the  first 
opportunity.  He  offered  a  reward  of  $100  for  the  capture  and  return  of 
his  runaway  slave,  or  spouse,  and  thus  regained  her  only  to  lose  her 
irrecoverably  a  few  months  later.^  Then  he  bought  less  migratory  chat- 
tels and  opened  two  supply  stores  at  Carson  City  and  Silver  City,  but,  as 

'  The  Territorial  Enterprise,  April  19,  1863;  Reproduction  of  Bketeh  published  in  1861.  The  Big 
Bonanza,  p.  87. 

«  The  Big  Bonanza,  pp.  77-80. 


412  HISTORY  OF  THE  COMSTOCK  LODE. 

his  customers  usually  paid  him  in  promises,  which  he  accepted  as  cash, 
he  was  soon  bankrupt  and  became  again  a  prospector.^  His  past  success 
and  the  hardships  of  his  wandering  life  turned  his  poor  brain.  In  fancy 
he  still  owned  the  Comstock  Lode  and  even  the  cities  on  its  line.  Yet 
with  princely  kindness  he  suffered  his  tenants  to  live  rent-free,  "for  the 
winters  are  cold,"  he  babbled,  "and  the  people  poor,  and  their  need  is 
greater  than  mine."^  So  the  cities  grew  and  the  mines  yielded  bonanza 
after  bonanza,  while  their  landlord  was  toiling  for  bread  among  the  bleak 
hills  of  the  northern  Territories.  At  length  he  was  tired  of  drifting  from 
camp  to  camp,  and  in  a  fit  of  despair  and  distraction  blew  out  his  brains 
September  27,  1870,  and  was  buried  without  a  headstone  in  Bozeman,  a 
little  mining  camp  of  Montana.^ 

Peter  O'Riley  wasted  his  fortune  in  absurd  mining  projects  and 
other  foolish  speculations.  He  had  wandered  away  from  the  Washoe 
district  only  to  return  to  it  in  1867  with  small  means  but  great  expecta- 
tions. His  brain  teemed  with  visions  of  wealth  and  spiritualistic  delusions. 
Relying  on  the  guidance  of  angelic  retrospectors  he  began  work  upon  a 
tunnel  in  a  desolate  place  among  the  foot-hills  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  Moun- 
tains. The  hill-side  which  he  wished  to  pierce  was  only  "a  bed  of  rotten 
granite,"  as  a  well-informed  observer*  declared  in  a  sketch,  whose  con- 
clusion is  here  most  apposite  and  interesting:  "Here  O'Riley  toiled  alone 
for  two  or  three  years  under  all  manner  of  difficulties.  The  ground  in 
which  he  was  at  work  was  full  of  water,  and  caves  frequently  occurred  in 
his  tunnel.  The  work  of  many  weeks  was  often  lost  in  a  moment  by 
a  cave  which  crushed  in  his  timbers  and  drove  him  back  almost  to 
where  he  first  began ;  but  the  spirits  said  there  was  a  whole  mountain  of 
silver  and  gold  ahead,  and  he  believed  them  and  persevered.  He  was 
without  money  but  not  without  friends.  One  and  another  of  his  friends 
among  the  old  settlers  purchased  for  him  what  he  required  in  the  way  of 
provisions  and  tools.     As  he  worked  alone  in  his  dark  tunnel  month  after 

1  The  Big  Bonanza,  p.  80. 

2  Montana  Post,  August  21,  1867. 

'  E.  0.  Addison,  editor  of  the  Bozeman  Avaut  Courier,  eye-witness  of  Comstock's  death ;  Letter  dated 
February  28,  1880. 

*  William  Wright,  ("Dan  de  Quille,")  City  Editor  of  Territorial  Enterprise. 


A  SIGNIFICANT  CONTEAST.  413 

month,  far  under  the  mountain,  the  spirits  began  to  grow  more  and  more 
familiar.  Tliey  swarmed  about  liiin,  advising  and  directing  the  worlc .  As 
he  wielded  pick  and  sledge  their  voices  came  to  him  out  of  the  darkness 
which  walled  in  the  light  of  his  solitary  candle,  cheering  him  on;  voices 
from  the  chinks  in  the  rocks  whispered  to  him  stories  of  great  masses  of 
native  silver  at  no  great  distance  ahead,  of  caverns  floored  with  silver 
and  roofed  with  great  arches  hung  with  stalactites  of  pure  silver  and  glit- 
tering native  gold.  The  spirits  talked  so  much  with  him  in  his  tunnel 
under  the  mountain,  and  had  made  themselves  so  familiar  there,  that  at 
last  they  boldly  conversed  with  him  under  the  broad  light  of  day,  and  in 
the  city  as  well  as  in  the  solitude  of  the  mountains.  He  was  heard 
muttering  to  them  as  he  walked  the  streets,  and  a  wild  and  joyous  light 
gleamed  in  his  eyes  as  he  listened  to  their  promises.  News  at  length 
came  that  O'Riley  had  been  caved  on  and  badly  hurt;  then  that  the  phy- 
sicians had  pronounced  him  insane.  When  he  recovered  from  his  hurt 
he  was  anxious  to  return  to  his  tunnel — the  spirits  under  the  mountain 
were  calling  to  him;  but  he  was  sent  to  a  private  asylum  for  the  insane 
at  Woodbridge,  California,  and  in  a  year  or  two  died  there,  the  spirits  to 
the  last  lingering  about  him  and  heaping  on  him  reproaches  for  having 
left  the  golden  mountains  and  silver  caverns  they  had  pointed  out  to 
him.^ " 

The  most  honest  and  hard-working  of  the  company,  Patrick  McLaugh- 
lin, struggled  along  with  little  judgment  and  general  ill-fortune,  serving 
at  last  as  a  cook  for  a  party  of  miners  in  San  Bernadino  County,  Califor- 
nia, where  he  fell  sick  two  years  ago  (1879),  and  died  in  the  county  hos- 
pital without  leaving  enough  to  pay  for  a  pauper's  burial.^ 

To  judge  from  the  typical  history  of  the  Washoe  district,  in  the  dis- 
covery of  rich  ledges  the  element  of  chance  largely  enters,  as  witness 
the  comparative  fortune  of  the  Grosch  brothers  and  their  ignorant  com- 
panions ;  but  for  the  development  of  bonanzas,  skill,  perseverance,  and 
energy  make  chance  subordinate  and  can  almost  constrain  the  smiles  of 
fortune.    When  to  these  traits  which  have  distinguished  the  management 

'  The  Big  Bonanza,  pp.  98,  99. 

•  C.  G.  Campbell,  M.  D.,  County  Physician,  San  Bernadino ;  Letter  dated  April  20,  1880. 


414  HISTOEY  OF  THE  COMSTOOK  LODE. 

of  the  Comstock  mines  a  just  regard  for  the  interests  of  every  stock- 
holder shall  be  added — when  stock  gambling  shall  come  to  an  end,  and 
shares  shall  be  bought  for  the  sake  of  developing  the  mines  and  reaping 
the  legitimate  returns  of  such  an  investment — when  the  body  of  miners 
shall  see  the  folly  and  unfairness  of  their  arbitrary  standard  of  wages — 
then  the  Comstock  Lode  will  be  indeed  a  field  of  industry  to  which  the 
American  people  may  point  with  less  qualified  pride;  but  there  is  reason 
to  fear  that  the  mines  will  be  deserted  before  these  Utopian  reforms  are 
effected. 


a.t*f:ent)x:k. 


Table  I. — Location  of  mines. 


NUMBER  OF  LOCATIONS  IN— 


Record  Books 

Letter  A 

"     B 

"     C 

"     D 

"     E 

"     F 

"     G 

"     H 

"     I 

"     J 

"     K 

"     L 

"     M 

"     N 

"     O 

"     P 

"     Q 

"     R 

"     S 

"     T 

"     U 

"     V 

"     W 

"     Y 

"     Z 

Total  


Virginia  Dis- 
trict. 


Gold  Hill  Dis- 
trict. 


Years. 


Outside  Dis- 
tricts. 


262 
710 
422 
330 
259 
309 
290 
662 
241 


261 

384 
908 
264 
188 
417 

21 
370 
841 
390 

38 
151 
528 

45 

14 


234 
680 
741 
200 
161 
360 
335 
599 

69 
188 
195 
390 
641 
179 
156 
361 

24 
326 
638 
195 

33 
156 
468 

29 
6 


8,305 


7,364 


1859 
1860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 


5 
2 
1 

85 

28 

24 

1 

23 

17 

35 

19 

18 

39 

56 

48 

102 

256 

120 

72 

165 

78 

44 


1,237 


16,906 


(415) 


416 


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APPENDIX, 


417 


Table  II — Continued. — Total  product  of  the  Comstoclc  district,  1860  to  June  30, 1880. 

lOro  extracted  and  milled,  1860  to  June  30, 1880-6, 971, 641  tons  640  pounds.] 


Based  ox- 

Produce  for  pe- 
riods stated. 

Total  bullion  pro- 
duct, 1860  to  June 
30,  1880. 

Estimated 
value  per  ton 
(tailings  in- 
cluded). 

United  States  Commissioner's  Reports,  1860  to  1866  .. 
State  Tax  List,  1867  to  June  30,  1880 

$67, 156, 074  00 
238,978,443  90 
199,824,364  00 
104,927,807  59 
105,242,766  00 
134,026,443  00 

66,879,661  83 
1,000,000  00 

77,877,718  00 

35,897,428  22 
134,026,443  00 

66,879,661  83 
1,000,000  00 
2,500,000  00 

75,877,718  00 

25,897,428  22 
134,026,443  00 

66,879,661  83 

$306,134,517  90 

$43  91 

United  States  Commissioner's  Reports,  1860  to  1875. .. 
State  Tax  List,  1876  to  June  30,  1880 

304,752,171  59 

43  71 

United  States  Commissioner's  Reports,  1860  to  1870  .. 

United  States  Monetary  Commission's  Report,  1870  to 

1876. 
State  Tax  List,  1877  to  June  30,  1880 

306,148,870  83 

43  91 

Estimate  of  United  States  Commissioner  and  Lord,  1860. 
Hague's  Report,  1861  to  1867 

State  Tax  List,  1868  to  1870 

United  States  Monetary  Commission's  Report,  1871  to 

1876. 
State  Tax  List,  1877  to  June  30,  1880 

305,681,251  05 

43  84 

Estimate  of  United  States  Commissioner  and  Lord,  1860. 
Estimate  of  Lord,  1861 

Hague's  Report,  1862  to  1867 

State  Tax  List,  1868  to  1870 

United  States  Monetary  Commission's  Report,  1871  to 

1876. 
State  Tax  List,  1877  to  June  30,  1880 

306,181,251  05 
305,779,612  48 

43  91 

43  86 

27— HO 


418 


APPENDIX. 


Table  II — Continued. — Proportions  of  gold  and  silver  in  Gomstock  bullion. 

[From  official  reports  of  the  mining  companies  as  far  as  accessible.     The  product  is  not  in  all  cases  thus  segregated  into  gold  and 
silver  in  the  companies^  reports.    The  figures  quoted  are  of  assay  (not  marked)  values.] 


SOURCE. 

Gold. 

SiLVEE. 

Total. 

Peecemtagi;. 

Gold. 

Silver. 

Gold  Hill  group. 

$10,166,656  88 

8,813,196  06 

170, 133  12 

1,073,021  60 

563,121  83 

813,762,812  77 
6,716,231  05 

363,123  80 
2,588,138  85 

786,713  69 

?23,929,469  65 

15,529,427  11 

633,256  92 

4, 661, 160  45 

1,349,835  62 

Belcher,  from  January  1, 1871,  to  December  31, 1873 

Empire,  from  December  21, 1864,  to  December  16, 1868__ 
Total  for  Gold  Hill  group 

21,686,129  49 

24,217,020  16 

45,903,149  65 

$47  25 

$52  75 

Centeal  orottp. 
Savage  Julv  1  1866  to  June  30  1873 

3,661,220  70 

677,729  22 

2,772,468  28 

3,863,488  14 

7,090,573  61 
1,219,113  16 
4,774,187  26 
6,314,261  66 

10,761,794  31 
1,796,842  38 
7,546,655  64 

10,182,749  80 

Gould  4  Cuny,  December  1, 1865,  to  NoTemborSO,  1867-. 
Hale  &  Norcross,  March  1, 1866,  to  January  31, 1874  — 
Chollar-Potosi,  June  1, 1867,  to  May  31, 1874 

10,879,906  34 

19,398,135  69 

30,278,042  03 

35  93 

64  07 

BONANZi  QEOUP. 

Consolidated  Virffinia  to  December  31  1880 

29,075,338  97 
23,308,012  69 
2,172,600  67 

35,895,438  93 
23,428,818  75 
2,608,744  28 

64,970,777  95 

46,736,831  44 

4,781,344  85 

Ophir,  1865  and  1875, 1876  and  1877 

Total  for  Bonanza  group 

Reoapitulation. 

64,655,962  23 

61,933,002  01 

116,488,954  24 

46  83 

63  17 

21,686,129  49 
10,879,906  34 
64,655,952  23 

24,217,020  16 
19,398,135  69 
61,933.002  01 

45,903,149  66 
30,278,042  03 
116,488,954  24 

87,121,988  06 

105,518,157  86 

192,670,145  92 

45  22 

54  78 

Baron  Von  Kichthofen's  estimate  of  the  yield  of  the 
Comstock  to  close  of  1865 

15,250,000  00 

32,750,000  00 

48,000,000  00 

31  77 

68  23 

102,371,988  06 

138,298,157  86 

240,670,145  92 

42  64 

57  46 

APPENDIX. 


419 


Table  III. — Financial  showing  of  Washoe  Mining  Companies  whose  stoolcs  were  dealt 
in  at  the  San  Francisco  Boards  at  the  close  of  the  Census  year  June  30,  1880 : 


Company. 


Dividends, 


No. 


Amount. 


Assessments. 


No. 


Amount. 


Profit. 


Loss. 


Washoe  Mines 

Alpha  Consolidated 

Alta 

Amazon  Consolidated 

American  Flat 

Andes 

Atlantic  Consolidated 

Baltimore  Consolidated . 

Belcher 

Benton  Consolidated 

Best  &  Belcher 

Brilliant 

Buckeye 

Bullion 

Caledonia 

California 

Challenge  Consolidated. 

Chollar 

Confidence 

Consolidated  Imperial . . 
Consolidated  Dorado  . . . 
Consolidated  Virginia  . . 
Consolidated  Washoe . . . 

Cosmopolitan 

Crown  Point 

Crown  Point  Ravine  . . . 

Daney 

Dardanelles 

Dayton 

De  Haro 

Erie  Consolidated 

Europa 

Exchequer 

Fairfax 

Flowery 

Franklin 

George  Douglas 

Georgia 

Golden  Gate 


399 


1115,871,100 


38 


15,397,200 


34 


31,320,000 


78,000 


51 


42,390,000 


50 
2 


11,588,000 
56, 000 


1090 
12 
17 

6 

7 
14 

3 
19 
22 

3 
17 

4 

19 
14 
31 


1 
3 

11 

11 
1 

15 
1 
5 

41 
6 
5 
7 

10 
2 
1 
8 

15 
2 
3 
4 
3 
1 
1 


61,715, 

330, 

1,317, 

54, 

172, 

425, 

45, 

1,015, 

1,990, 

162, 

942, 

25, 

332, 

3,352, 

1,935, 


535 

000 
600 
000 
500 
000 
000 
000 
000 
000 
590 
000 
000 
000 
000 


10, 

168, 

256, 

1.125, 

50, 

411, 

8, 

125, 

2, 373, 

49, 

91, 

390, 

750, 

25, 

10, 

126, 

530, 

35, 

100, 

unknown 

45, 

10, 

100, 


000 
000 
320 
000 
000 
200 
000 
000 
370 
500 
800 
000 
000 
000 
000 

oco 

000 
000 
000 


000 
000 
000 


$97,547,430 


13,407,200 


31,320,000 


41,978,800 


9,214,630 


$43, 391, 865 

330,000 

1,317,600 

54, 000 

172, 500 

425, 000 

45,000 

1,01,5,000 

162, 000 

942,590 

25,000 

332, 000 

3, 352, 000 

1,935,000 

10,000 

168,000 

178,320 

1, 125, 000 

50,000 

8,000 
125, 000 

49,500 

35, 800 

390, 000 

750, 000 

25,000 

10,000 

126,000 

.530, 000 

35, 000 

100, 000 

unknown. 

45,000 

10,000 

100, 000 


420 


APPENDIX 

Table  III — Continued. 


Company. 


Dividends. 


No. 


Amount. 


Assessments. 


No. 


Amount. 


Profit. 


Loss. 


Gould  &  Curry 

Green 

Hale  &  Norcross , 

Hartford 

Insurance , 

Joe  Scales 

Julia  Consolidated 

Justice 

Kentuck 

Kossuth , 

Lady  Bryan 

Lady  Washington 

Lee 

Leviathan 

Mackey , 

Mary  Ana 

Maryland 

Mexico 

Midas 

Mint 

Mount  Hood 

Mountain  View 

Nevada 

New  York 

Niagara  

North  Bonanza 

North  Carson 

North  Consolidated  Virginia 

North  Sierra  Nevada 

Occidental 

Ophir 

Original  Gold  Hill 

Original  Keystone 

Overman 

Patten 

Peytona 

Phil.  Sheridan 

Pioneer 

Potosi 

Prospect 


36 


$3,826,800 


36 


1,598,000 


32 


1,252,000 


24 


1,595,800 


37 

14 

64 
5 
3 
4 

12 

32 

13 
8 
4 
1 
1 

10 
3 
1 
1 

II 
2 

22 
3 
I 
3 

22 
5 
5 
9 

16 
2 
6 

35 
8 
3 

45 
2 
2 
9 
2 
3 
6 


$3, 152, 000 

unknown  

3, 306,  000 

14,700 

18, 000 

95, 000 

1,229,000 

3, 230, 000 

300, 000 

421,200 

200,000 

21,  600 

5, 000 

315, 000 

35, 000 

10,500 

5,400 

1,243,000 

21,000 

142,500 

35, 000 

25,000 

18,000 

900,000 

99,  000 

175, 000 

160,000 

820, 000 

10,000 

112,500 

2,689,400 

102,  000 

125, 000 

3,162,800 

20, 000 

70,000 

145,000 

15,000 

168, 000 

260,000 


1674,800 


952,000 


unknown. 

$1,708,000 

14,700 

18, 000 

95, 000 

1,229,000 

3,230,000 

421,200 

200,000 

21,600 

5,000 

315,  000 

35, 000 

10,500 

5,400 

1,243,000 

21,000 

142,500 

35,000 

25,000 

18, 000 

900, 000 

99, 000 

175,000 

160,000 

820, 000 

10,000 

112, 500 

1,093,600 

102, 000 

125, 000 

3, 162, 800 

20, 000 

70, 000 

145, 000 

15, 000 

168, 000 

260, 000 


APPENDIX 


421 


Table  III— Continued. 


Company. 


Dividends. 


No.  Amount. 


Assessments. 


No.  Amount. 


PRoriT. 


Loss. 


Sabine 

Savage  

Scorpion  

Segregated  Belcher 

Segregated  Gold  Hill . . . 

Senator 

Sierra  Nevada 

Silver  City. 

Silver  Hill 

Solid  Silver 

South  Comstock 

South  Utah 

Saint  Louis 

Succor 

Sutro 

Tolo 

Trojan 

Union  Consolidated 

Utah 

Vancouver 

Vermont  Consolidated . . 

Ward 

Wells  Fargo 

Woodville  Consolidated  . 
Yellovf  Jacket 


52 


$4, 460, 000 


11 


102,500 


22, 800 


25 


2,184,000 


2 

42 
7 

16 
1 
1 

63 
1 

10 
3 
6 
4 
1 

24 
4 
2 

12 

14 

30 
3 
2 
5 

14 
6 

37 


$25, 000 

4, 964, 000 

122, 000 

264, 000 

12,000 

10, 800 

3,850,000 

15,775 

1,620,000 

75, 000 

79,000 

35, 000 

16,200 

798, 000 

25, 680 

25,000 

315, 000 

860, 000 

1,030,000 

35, 000 

44, 000 

198, 000 

264,600 

630, 000 

4,638,000 


$25, 000 

504,  000 

122, 000 

264,000 

12, 000 

10, 800 

3,747,500 

15,775 

1,620,000 

75, 000 

79, 000 

35, 000 

16, 200 

775, 200 

25, 680 

25, 000 

315,000 

860,  000 

1, 030, 000 

35, 000 

44, 000 

198, 000 

261,600 

630, 000 

2,454,000 


An  analysis  of  the  above  shows  that,  of  the  103  mining  companies 
reported,  6  show  an  excess  in  amount  of  dividends  over  assessments,  and 
97  an  excess  in  amount  of  assessments  over  dividends;  14  have  paid 
dividends,  and  102  have  levied  assessments ;  1  has  paid  dividends  and 
levied  no  assessments ;  89  have  levied  assessments  and  paid  no  dividends ; 
and  13  have  paid  dividends  and  levied  assessments. 


422 


APPEi*fDIX. 


Table  1Y —Assessments,  1880-'81. 


COMPANT. 


Alpha  Consolidated .  . 

Alta 

Andes 

Atlantic  Consolidated. 

Best  &  Belcher 

Belcher 

Bullion 

Benton  Consolidated  . 

Concordia  (Virginia)  . 

Caledonia , 

California 

ChoUar 

Confidence 

Consolidated  Virginia . 

Consolidated  Dorado  . . 

Crown  Point 

Consolidated  Imperial . 

Exchequer... 

Fairfax 

Flowery 

Golden  Gate 

Gould  &  Curry 

Hale  &  Norcross 

Julia  Consolidated 

Justice 

Kentuck 

Lady  Bryan 

Lady  Washington 

Leviathan 

Maokey 

Mountain  View 

Mexican 

Morning  Star 

New  Wells  Fargo 

New  York 

North  Bonanza 

North  Sierra  Nevada  . . 


Assessments 

LEVIED 
FOR  THE  TEAR 

1880. 


$60, 000 

108,000 

50,000 

10, 000 

201, 600 

390,000 

400, 000 

108,000 

75, 000 

150,000 


168,000 


250,000 

150, 000 

100,000 

20, 000 

10, 000 

100,000 

162, 000 

392,000 

132,000 

157,500 

9,000 

25,000 


40,000 

60,000 

25, 000 

540, 000 


50,000 
50,000 


Assessments 

LEVIED 
FOR  THE  TEAB 

1881. 


$30, 000 

216,000 

50,000 


100, 800 

234,000 

320,000 

54, 000 


125,000 

162, 000 

56, 000 

12,480 

162,000 

10,000 

125, 000 

150, 000 


108,000 
308,000 
66,000 
52,500 
33,000 
25,000 
10  800 
25,000 


324,000 

20,000 

5,000 

20,000 


Assessments 

LEVIED 
FOR  THE  YTIARS 

1880-'81. 


10,000 


$90, 000 
324, 000 
100,000 

10, 000 
302, 400 
624,000 
720, 000 
162, 000 

75,000 
275, 000 
162, 000 
224, 000 

12,480 
162, 000 

10, 000 

375,000 

300, 000 

100, 000 

20,  000 

10, 000 

100,000 

270, 000 

700,000 

198,000 

210,000 

42, 000 

50, 000 

10,800 

65, 000 

60,000 

25,000 

864, 000 

20, 000 

5,000 
70, 000 
50,000 
10,000 


APPENDIX. 


423 


Table  IY— Continued. 


CoMPAirr. 


Assessments 

LEVIED 
IfOU  THE  YEAR 

1880. 


Assessments 

LEVIED 
FOR  THE  YEAR 

1881. 


Assessments 

LEVIED 
FOR  THE  YEARS 

18S0-'81. 


Occidental    

Original  Gold  Hill  . . 

Ophir 

Original  Keystone. . . 

Overman 

Potosi 

Phil  Sheridan 

Prospect 

Solid  SiWer 

Savage  

Scorpion 

Segregated  Belcher. . 

Silver  Hill 

Silver  City 

Sierra  Nevada 

Trojan 

Union  Consolidated 

Utah 

Wells  Fargo 

Yellow  Jacket 


Total  assessments . 
Total  dividends . . . 


$20, 000 
3,000 

453,600 
50,  OCO 

230,  400 

168,  000 
25,  000 
10, 000 
25, 000 

392, 000 

75, 000 

6,400 

199,800 


$201,600 

75, 000 

172, 800 

112,000 

10, 000 

10, 000 


600, 000 


100,000 

120, 000 

10, 800 

480, 000 


2=2, 000 

35, 000 

19,200 

81, 000 

6, 310 

500, 000 
10,000 

200, 000 

220,000 


360, 000 


6,952,100 


$5, 079, 490 


$20, 000 

3,000 

655,200 

125, 000 

403,200 

280,  000 

35,000 

20, 000 

25,000 

644, 000 

110, 000 

25,  (iOO 

280, 800 

6,  310 

1,100,000 

10, 000 

300, 000 

340, 000 

10, 800 

840, 000 


$12, 041, 590 
$370, 800 


Excess  of  assessments $11,670,790 


Dividends. 

Consolidated  Virginia  (August  7,  1880) 

Ophir  (January  12, 1880) 

Total 


$270, 000 
100, 800 

$370, 800 


424 


APPENDIX. 


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APPENDIX. 


425 


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July. 

July  &  Sept. 
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426 


APPENDIX. 


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APPENDIX. 


427 


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Senator  

APPENDIX. 


429 


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432 


APPENDIX. 


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Nov.  &  Dec. 

November . 

January. 

October. 

December. 
July. 

October. 

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APPENDIX. 


433 


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434 


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APPENDIX. 


Table  VI. -STOREY  COUNTY  HOSPITAL. 
Deaths  and  causes — 1865  to  1880. 


CAUSES. 

TEAKS. 

Total. 

1-i 

5 

00 

00 

OS 

i" 

3 

1 

CO 

oo 

00 

3 

CO 

oo' 

00 

00 

1 

Accidents,  R.  E        

2 
5 

2 

15 
1 
2 
4 
6 
1 
1 

13 
1 
1 
1 
1 

11 
1 

14 
2 
2 

19 

10 
2 
1 
1 
3 
2 
2 
2 
7 
3 

17 
1 
1 
5 
1 
1 

20 
4 
8 

29 
2 
1 

27 
1 
1 
1 
4 
1 

15 
2 
3 

35 
1 

14 

31 
4 
1 
1 
5 
3 

Alcoholism 

3 

3 



1 

2 

1 

Aneurism      -                  - 

1 

2 

1 

1 
2 

2 
2 



1 

1 

1 

1 

Chest  diseases _ 

6 

7 

1 

1 

1 

1 

5 

6 
1 
3 
2 

1 
2 

Cramps     - 

Debility ._ 

1 

1 

1 

1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

1 

Dropsj'  _    - - 

2 

2 
4 

1 
1 

2 

1 

1 

2 

""3" 

2 

1 

Eczema _    _ 

Enteritis 

1 

Erysipelas 

1 

1 

2 

brain 

1 

1 

gastric 

1 

1 

2 

typhoid             - 

1 

1 

5 

1 

2 

2 

6 

2 
1 



1 

4 

2 

1 

Fistula-in-aoo       

Fracture.               

1 



Heart  disease          ___  

3 

2 

Hydrotborax          

1 

1 

Injuries,  miscellaneous 

4 
1 

1 
1 

2 
.... 

-.-. 

1 

1 
1 



3 

8 





Liver  disease          

1 

9 

1 



3 

2 

1 



2 

7 

1 

10 

Mania. 

1 

1 
2 

Mania-a-potu 

2 

2 

1 

1 

3 

2 

1 

9 

5 

1 
.... 

Necrosis  ecalp .        _    

1 





"i' 





Old  age . 

Orchitis 

I 

Paralysis   .  _  - 

1 

2 

2 

1 

1 

1 

1 

4 

1 

2 

1 

Pleurisy 

3 
3 

4 
1 

2 

5 

4 

2 

8 

1 

6 



Ptyolism 

Rheumatism . 

Small-pox 

2 

1 

"T 

1 

2 
19 

.-__ 

3 

1 
1 

1 
.... 

2 

2 



4 

2 

Tumor              _      

1 

1 

Wounds  (gunshot) 

1 

1 

1 



2 

1 

1 

1 



Total 

8 

22 

19 

22 

40 

12 

11 

29 

24 

29 

30 



27 

28 

41 

20 

362 

APPENDIX. 


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438 


APPENDIX. 


Table  VIII.— STOKEY  COUNTY  HOSPITAL. 
Nationality  of  patients  treated. 


Ybak. 

o 

■fe 

a  c 
c8.a 

<v 

■3  S 

Total. 

1865* 

33 

56 

50 

45 

69 

47 

40 

85 

87 

95 

186 

219 

162 

158 

232 

168 

5 
20 
18 
31 
28 
16 
18 
34 
30 
41 
60 
90 
78 
74 
91 
63 

7 
16 
14 
17 
35 
10 
24 
20 
24 
31 
49 
70 
44 
31 
32 
30 

34 

87 

45 

53 

44 

56 

51 

101 

88 

112 

180 

201 

197 

190 

208 

157 

15 

36 
20 
42 
28 
20 
32 
32 
39 
36 
62 
38 
30 
41 
52 
52 

94 
215 
147 
188 
204 
149 
165 
272 
268 
315 
537 
618 
511 
494 
615 
470' 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873 

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 

Total 

1,732 

697 

454 

1,804 

575 

5,262 

*For  October,  November,  and  Decembei-  only. 


APPENDIX. 


43& 


Table  IX.— STOREY  COUNTY  HOSPITAL. 
Occupation  o/patients  treated — October,  1865,  to  June,  1880  {both  incltisive). 


Ybak. 

1i 

^1 

2 

1 

.S 

§ 

1 

a 
i 

a 

a 
s 

i 
1 

r 

d 

a 

a 
1 

1 

3 

3 
O 

1 

13 

1 

1865*  

3 

4 

1 

1 

11 

5 

6 

7 

13 

7 

13 

12 

10 

3 

10 

3 

3 

6 

11 

37 

40 

39 

44 

54 

33 

36 

156 

167 

123 

89 

88 

41 

50 
125 
83 
57 
74 
49 
49 
81 
99 
107 
117 
151 
135 
146 
184 
84 

1 

3 
5 

4 
2 
3 

3 
9 
0 
0 
5 
8 
10 
17 
9 
4 

1 

3 
3 
2 
4 

7 

6 

2 

19 

27 

15 

19 

4 

7 

9 

1 

0 

0 

2 

2 

2 

0 

0 

4 

0 

0 

12 

15 

13 

12 

16 

7 

6 
15 
10 
22 
11 
15 

8 
31 
]6 
24 
35 
59 
31 
29 
39 
14 

7 
17 
11 
22 
37 
13 
23 
43 
46 
60 
87 

109 
78 
91 

123 
56 

2 
0 
0 
2 
0 
0 
1 
4 
4 
4 
5 
3 

1 
6 
4 

0 

0 

0 

2 

3 

3 

5 

7 

4 

9 

12 

8 

20 

13 

12 

2 

21 
43 
21 
37 
20 
15 
20 
30 
34 
41 
80 
67 
85 
86 
119 
54 

94 

215 
147 
188 
204 
149 
165 
272 
268 
315 
537 
618 
511 
494 
615 
270 

1866 

1867 

1868 

1869 

1870 

1871 

1872 

1873  

1874 

1875 

1876 

1877 

1878 

1879 

1880 

Total 

109 

967 

1,591 

82 

129 

85 

365 

823 

38 

100 

773 

5,062 

iSex  o/patients  treated. 


Year. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

Ybak. 

Males. 

Females. 

Total. 

1865  * 

80 
203 
144 
177 
198 
143 
149 
244 
251 

14 

12 

3 

11 

6 

6 

16 

28 

17 

94 
215 
147 
188 
204 
149 
165 
272 
268 

1874 

289 
484 
554 
438 
444 
557 
396 

26 
53 
64 
73 
50 
58 
74 

315 
537 
618 
511 
494 
615 
470 

Ig66 

1875 

1867 

1876 

1868     

1877 

1869     

1878 

1870 

1871 

1879 

1880    

1872 

1873 

4,751 

511 

5,262 

*  For  October,  November,  and  December  only. 


440 


APPENDIX 


Table  X.— STOREY  COUNTY  HOSPITAL. 

Number  of  patients  received,  diseases  treated  for^  deaths,  causes  of  same,  with  number  of 

patients  discharged  for  the  year  1880. 


Diseases  and  number  of  Patients. 


Nxunberof 
patients. 


Abcesses 

Alcoholism 

Cancer 

Chest  and  throat  diseases 

Debility 

Dropsy 

Dysentery  and  diarrhoea. 

Dyspepsia 

Erysipelas 

Eye  diseases 

Fevers 

Fractures 

Heart  disease 

Hemorrhoids 

Hip  disease 

Insanity 

Kidney  disease 

Liver  disease 

Nervous  diseases 

Paralysis 

Poison 

Eheumatism 

Scrofula 

Small-pox 

Venereal  diseases 

Unclassified 

Total 


17 

50 

1 

78 

19 

2 

6 

1 

9 

3 

26 

56 

5 

1 

2 

4 

14 

8 

11 

11 

2 

43 

13 

11 

31 

46 


Death  and  Causes. 


Alcoholism.. - 
Chest  diseases 
Consumption . 

Debility 

Dropsy 

Dysentery  ... 

Fever 

Gastritis 

Liver  Disease 
Paralysis 


470 


Number 
of  deaths. 


'20 


s  s  " 

s  p.  .2 
K     ■3 


385 


>  Deaths— males,  18 ;  females,  2 ;  total,  20. 


APPENDIX, 


441 


Table  XI. — Storey  County 

Goroner^s  Eecord  of  Deaths  in 

1880 — Diseases. 

Causes. 

•-a 

1 

1 

a. 
< 

a) 
a 
a 

a 
02 

1 
3 

0 

B 

> 

0 

12; 

0) 

B 

u 

p 

►4 

.  1 
1 

1 
6 
1 
4 
2 
1 
1 
4 
6 
3 
9 
3 
2 

2 
18 
2 
9 
2 
1 
5 
4 
1 
3 
1 
3 
2 
2 
14 
3 
1 
1 
9 
2 
1 
1 
1 
3 
1 
28 
11 
1 
5 
2 
2 
3 
2 
31 
1 
5 
1 
6 
1 
1 
6 
4 
5 
4 
21 
4 
1 

1 

2 

.... 

1 

1 

1 

1 
1 

.... 

1 

3 

.... 

"'i' 

1 
1 

.... 

1 

Cancer 

1 
3 

6 

2 

Cholera  morbus.   - 

1 

'2' 

2 

2 

3 
2 
1 

.... 

2 

1 

1 

3 

1 
2 

1 

1 

1 

Debility 

1 
1 

1 
3 

2 

.... 

DroDsv      .     .      .     ,  -   .   . 

1 

.... 

1 
1 

1 

Enteritis    ......            . .. 

Erysipelas . . 

1 

1 
1 
2 

— 

1 
2 
1 

Heart  diseases 

3 

1 

1 

1 

2 

.... 

2 

1 

1 

Inflamniation  of  the  bowels  .. 

.... 

■    1 

1 

1 
1 

3 
1 

2 

.... 

1 

1 

Menino^itis                ...... 

1 

1 

Mercurial  poisoning' . 

1 

1 

.... 

2 

5 

1 

4 
1 
1 

2 
1 

9 

1 

1 
1 

1 

2 

I 

1 

Miscellaneous  .              ....... 

Palsy     

Paralysis . 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 

1 
1 

— 

2 

.... 

"3" 

1 
5 

5 

4 

2 

1 

1 

.... 

.... 

1 

2 

Remittent  fever ...   ......... 

Scarlet  fever -. 

.... 

1 

1 

1 

.... 

Scrofula  .......  . ...... 

1 

1 
1 

Still-boni 

1 

.... 

2 

1 

.... 

.... 

1 

2 

8 
"2 

Typhoid  pneumonia 

1 

"i' 

2 

Unknown  .. ............. 

1 
3 

1 

1 

5 

2 

3 

4 

Yellow  jaundice. . . . 

Total 

29 

23 

23 

16 

24 

23 

22 

20 

35 

23 

26 

16 

280 

442 


APPENDIX. 


Table  XII. — Storey  County  Coroner's  Record  of  Deaths  in  1880 — Nationalities  classified. 


Nationautt. 

1 

1 

1 
1 

1 

4 

t 

1 
5 

1 

1 

1 

j 

1 

Americans  ...... 

I'l 

16 

1" 

8 

15 

12 

7 

12 

20 

1? 

10 

s 

117 

Irish 

9 

1 

6 

4 

4 

3 

7 

3 

9 

4 

10 

4 

64 

9 

1 

9 

1 

n 

5 

2 

0 

2 

'I 

1 

0 

l^t 

Germans 

0 

0 

1 

9. 

0 

n 

9 

3 

0 

n 

1 

1 

in 

Mixed 

4 

4 

2 

1 

5 

3 

4 

2 

2 

3 

3 

3 

36 

Not  given . . 

0 

1 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

2 

0 

1 

0 

4 

Total 

29 

23 

23 

16 

24 

23 

23 

20 

3.5 

23 

26 

16 

280 

Storey  County  Cor 

oner's  Recorc 

I  of  Deaths  in  188C 

— Age  and  Sex  classified. 

Under 

5  to  9 

10  to  19 

20  to  29 

30  to  39 

40  to  49 

50  to  59 

60  to  69 

70  to  79 

Un- 

Months. 

5  years. 

years. 

years. 

yeaiB. 

years. 

years. 

years. 

years. 

years. 

known. 

i 

1 

3 

S 

d 

i 

S 

n 

i 

d 

^ 

m 

S 

■1 

'a 

1 

a 

1 

s 

1 

o 

a 

"3 

N 

» 

i 

1 

1 

a 

A 

H 

January 

1 

4 

0 

1 

2 

0 

0 

1 

1 

1 

6 

3 

4 

1 

1 

0 

1 

1 

1 

0 

17 

12 

29 

February 

.■-, 

3 

0 

0 

1 

0 

0 

1 

2 

2 

4 

1 

1 

0 

1 

0 

0 

0 

1 

1 

15 

8 

23 

March 

1 

?. 

1 

II 

n 

1 

?. 

1 

1 

?, 

7 

n 

f: 

1 

1 

n 

n 

0 

0 

1 

15 

R 

23 

2 
3 

3 
8 
1 

0 
0 

1 

0 
0 

1 

0 

1 

0 

0 
0 

1 

0 
0 

0 

1 
n 

2 
2 
1 

1 
2 

5 
4 

0 

1 

1 

2 

1 
0 

0 
0 

0 
0 

0 
0 

0 
0 

0 
0 

1 

0 

10 
12 
17 

6 
12 

16 
24 
23 

May  -    

July        

•> 

0 

n 

1 

n 

1 

"i 

>> 

3 

22 

Augast 

s 

2 

0 

0 

0 

0 

2 

1 

1 

2 

0 

0 

2 

1 

3 

0 

0 

0 

1 

0 

14 

6 

20 

September 

4 

9 

0 

0 

1 

0 

6 

1 

5 

0 

5 

2 

1 

1 

0 

0 

0 

0 

1 

0 

22 

13 

35 

October 

7 

3 

0 

0 

0 

2 

0 

0 

4 

2 

2 

1 

1 

0 

1 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

15 

8 

23 

November 

2 

4 

0 

0 

0 

1 

1 

2 

4 

1 

1 

0 

5 

0 

1 

0 

1 

3 

0 

0 

15 

11 

26 

December . 

i 

0 

0 

0 

1 

1 

0 

0 

4 

0 

3 

0 

' 

0 

1 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

15 

1 

16 

f41    41 
I     82 

2 

2 

7       G 

11        8 

.34     15 

45     11 

20       7 

9        0 

2 

5 

4       4 

4 

13 

19 

49 

66 

33 

9 

7 

8 

444 


APPENDIX. 


Table  XIII. — Criminal  cases  in  courts 


1867.* 

1868. 

1869. 

1870.§ 

1871.ir 

Sex— Male 

159 
18 

137 
13 

206 
34 

247 
37 

66 
8 

Female 

Total 

177 

150 

240 

284 

74 

Chinese 

2 

2 

17 

15 

4 

COMPLAINTS. 
Accegaory  to  assault  and  battery    

1 

Assault  and  battery 

46 
6 

40"""" 
8 

1 
6 

87 
11 
5 
3 

91" 

12 

5 

34 
1 

Assault  with  intent  to  kill 

Burglary   „__        __      

Carrying  concealed  weapons 

Conducting  lotteries 

15 



Contempt  of  court  _      

Cruelty  to  animals 





..... 

Disorderly  house 

80 

30 

50 

82 
13 

19 

Drawing  deadly  weapons      

Drunk  and  disorderly  

Embezzlement 

~~~ 

False  imprisonment 





Fighting       



7 
2 

..-_ 

Forgery       

4 

2 

Fraud         

Fugitive  from  justice 

Gambling  without  license _ 

7 
6 

12 

14 

Grand  larceny _  _ 

17 
1 

7 

2 

Indecent  exposure     _      -     

Keeping  a  saloon  without  a  license 

3 

1 

Kidnapping _ 

Liberating  a  prisoner 

Loitering  in  saloons 

Malicious  mischief    _    

Mayhem  ___           _    _ 

2 

11 

9 

13 

2 

Misdemeanor 

1 
3 
4 

1 

Murder _      _ 

3 

8 

Obtaining  money  under  false  pretenses 

4 

4 

3 

Opium  smoking^ 

Peddling  without  a  licesne 

11 

12 

30 

31 
3 

4 

1 

Perjury      _    

Practicing  medicine  without  a  license.    

Kape 

Keceiving  stolen  goods   „_  _    

Refusing  to  pay  taxes 

Resisting  an  officer 

Robbery        

Soliciting  without  a  license ; 

Threatening  life 

16 

7 

Vagrancy 

Violating  city  ordinances 

Violating  revenue  law 

Vulgar  language 

1 

Voting  illegally 

Guilty      

122 

50 

5 

$3,  863  75 

71 

60 

29 

$2,712  75 

116 

113 

11 

$3, 234  50 

145 

127 

12 

$3,014  00 

19 
53 
2 
81,020  00 

Held  for  trial 

Amount  of  fines  paid 

*  For  September,  October,  November,  and  December  only. 

§  Exclusive  of  December. 

■J  For  September,  October,  November,  and  December  only. 


APPENDIX. 


445 


of  Virginia  City,  1867  to  June  30,  1880. 


1872. 

1873. 

1874. 

1875. 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 

1879. 

1880. 

Total. 

291 
63 

289 
40 

276 
43 

413 
59 

438 

65 

418 
93 

410 
84 

482 
80 

476 
66 

4.307 
683 

344 

329 

318 

472 

493 

511 

494 

662 

642 

4,990 

27 

23 

16 

24 

28 

42 

30 

46 

51 

327 

1 
11 

1,692 

166 

69 

24 

4 

49 

14 

1 

1,321 

117 

49 

13 

1 

2 

38 

14 

9 

I 

32 

221 

4 

20 

6 

1 

1 

180 

4 

19 

36 

64 

40 

8 

602 

16 

13 

3 

llr 

1 

1 

15 

1 

99 

203 

11 

1 

4 

2 

2,033 
2,760 
197 
$48,230  38 

1 

111 

13 

6 

2 

157 

9 

9 

1 

173 

17 

6 

4 

181 

18 

8 

1 

133 

15 

11 

1 

126 

9 

2 

100 
6 

145 
18 
3 

169 
13 
3 

4 

29 
3 

20 
2 
1 
94 
14 
48 

3 

1 

3 

160 
I 

85 
4 
1 

77 
9 

128 
29 

125 
14 

134 
14 

120 
11 

137 
8 

3 

3 
1 

7 



1 
2 

1 

1 

12 

4 
4 

6 
1 

1 

1 



1 

6 

1 

1 

10 
16 
2 
2 
1 

2 
18 

1 
17 

12 

19 

1 

35 

23 

22 

13 

2 

1 

4 

2 

1 

7 
1 

2 

1 
22 

10 

8 

17 
2 
1 
6 
3 

18 

1 
2 
1 
7 

17 

18 
1 
4 
3 
3 
9 

64 
2 

18 

21 

1 
1 
3 

3 

10 

4 

6 
4 
6 
11 

1 

62 

2 

2 

1 

2 
4 

1 
1 
20 

3 

66 
1 

4 
55 

2 
10 

36 

1 

32 

21 

32 
1 
3 

66 
2 

2 

1 
3 
1 
1 

1 

2 

2 

3 

1 

7 

5 

2 

1 
11 
49 
11 

2 

3 

12 

i 
14 

14 
13 

8 
6 

13 

5 

7 
33 

14 
72 

1 

3 
2 

132 

395 

15 

$1, 262  00 

190 

140 
14 
$4, 422  00 

160 
164 

5 
S3, 651  00 

155 
148 

15 
$3, 469  45 

203 
247 

22 
$5,  680  48 

192 

284 

17 

S3, 881  76 

174 

322 

15 

84,075  60 

168 

314 

12 

$5,127  45 

186 

353 

23 

$3,131  76 

446 


APPENDIX. 


Table  XIV. — Comparative  Statement  of  Tonnage  of  Virginia  dk  Truckee  B.  B.  for  the 

years  1874  to  1879,  inclusive. 


Abticles. 

1874. 

1875. 

1876. 

1877. 

1878. 

1879. 

Tons. 

Lbs. 

Tons. 

Lbs. 

Tons. 

Lbs. 

Tons. 

Lbs. 

Tons. 

Lbs. 

Tons. 

Lbs. 

47, 108 

5,019 

6,879 

84, 868 

181,760 

1,774 

1,360 

704 

included 

2,365 

274,343 

74 

1,303 

1,864 

46 

1,603 

800 

130 
1,780 

470 
nmdse 

162 

5 

66, 662 

6,455 

4,456 

117, 855 

233,083 

2,210 

2,271 

1,859 

355 

3,351 

216,909 

125 

1,441 

761 

2,956 

1,200 

1,262 

721 

1,692 

1,011 

1,000 

1,700 

897 

1,945 

2S5 

129 

1,150 

598 

58, 659 

6,299 

6,398 

116,403 

ii75,962 

2,261 

2,918 

1,237 

739 

4,728 

278,042 

267 

792 

1,010 

1,432 

1,312 

1,610 

1,434 

100 

1,400 

943 

1,901 

1,383 

260 

340 

810 

1,340 

37,510 

5,638 

5,722 

63,345 

287,946 

3,770 

4,223 

223 

768 

3,440 

155,757 

118 

1,865 

1,000 

1,884 

818 

350 

1,393 

1,550 

1,330 

10 

1,865 

83 

1,560 

1,000 

668 

1,000 

39,975 

6,436 

5,235 

58,293 

261, 805 

6,416 

4,392 

263 

463 

3,231 

121,143 

103 

143 

203 

1,293 

1,026 

1,260 

250 

1,125 

936 

550 

820 

1,434 

1,004 
1,200 

45,072 

6,890 

4,900 

47,165 

228,699 

2,961 

3,573 

404 

375 

2,879 

62,841 

90 

1,971 
929 
845 

1,312 
725 
415 
884 

1,270 
925 

1,485 

369 

73 

Lumber  (iQ  feet.  See  be- 
low). 

Ice                          

Mill  salt                     

Lime  and  plaster 

Hay 

Stone,  brick,  and  Band  _— 
Gypsum 

Tailings  (mill) 

1,000 
796 

Old  iron  (rails) 

470 

100 

22 

TOTAT.B 

605, 828 

163 

651,862 

135 

755,044 

215 

671,780 

l.fOl 

607,922 

161 

395,864 

1,203 

1 

3  a 

1 

Wood  shipments, 
in  cords,  includ- 
ing consumption 
by  Company's  lo- 
comotires. 

1 

as 
'J 

S  a 

■gg 
1^ 

1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 

62, 220, 801 
72,526,465 
71,633,072 
38,981,967 
34,427,502 
31,443,771 

1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 

139,808 

179,295 

212,278i 

221,496J 

205, 311i 

185,622i 

1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 

16,336 

16,465 

10,298 

7,796 

B.  A  0.  S. 


NoTS. — Free  freight  (Company's  auppliea)  included  in  the  above. 

D.  A.  BENDER, 

General  Freight  Agent, 


IIN'DEX. 


Abernathie,  F.  B -iS 

Asacsameuts,  Table  of ^lO 

Atwood,  Melville,  determines  character  of  Comstock  Xode  ore_    55 

DOtes  true  dip  of  Lode 100 

Baldwin,  Alexander 101 

P.  M 4S 

Baltic  Company  attacks  Caledonia  Company 137 

Belcher,  E 48 

BiBbop,  John 35,  46,  60 

Blackburn,  John  C;  marshal  of  the  district  court 106 

executes  order  of  arrest 107 

,  Murder  of 112 

Bonner,  Charles;  incorporator  of  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Co..  247 

opposes  Miners'  tFniun 207 

reconstructs  Gould  and  Curry  mill 125 

Bowers,  Alexander 36 

Bowers  Mining  Company  contest  with  Savage  Mining  Co 103 

,  Locatiou  of 102 

Brevoort,  Henry,  designs  reduction  pan 82 

Browne,  J.  Ross,  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Mines  and  lilining: 

,  Keport  of 226 

visits  Comstock  Lode  Mines 52 

Brown,  Sam;  desperado  at  mines 75 

,  Death  of 111 

Bucke,  Richard  M 30 

abandons  Gold  CaClon  ledges 32 

crosses  Sierras  with  Allen  Grosb 31 

suffers  amputation  of  feet 32 

Bullion  product  of  Comstock  district.  Total 417,418 

mines  in  1866 226 

Gold  CaQon  from  1850  to  1857 24 

1858  to  1859 62 

,Proportion8of  gold  and  silver  in 41^ 

Burning  Moscow  Company  contest  with  Ophir  Company  .139, 174 

discovers  bonanza 139 

,  First  stock  bubble  of 138 

incorporated 138 

Caledonia  Company  attacked  by  Baltic  Company 137 

California  Mining  Company,  Aunual  operating  expenses  of 349 

,  Bullion  product  of 320 

,  Inflation  of  stock  of 315 

,  Location  of  claim  of 45 

re-incorporated 314 

works  destroyed  by  fire 325 

Carson  City „    96 

County  attached  to  Great  Salt  Lako  County 1 9 

,  Organization  of 16 

seat,  Removal  of 19 

,  Valley  of  the __      7 

,  First  settlers  in 15 

Central  Corap.iny  Xu.  1 61 

Child;),  John  S.;  I'l'ulinie  j>u(Ige 41 

Chinese  assailed  by  liiiners 355 


Page. 

Chinese  employed  as  laborers  on  railroad 253 

hawkers  of  wood 204 

placer  miners 63 

quarters  in  Virginia  City 119 

Chollar  Mining  Company  consolidated  with  Potosi  Mining  Co_  173 

,  Expenses  of  litigation  of 173 

suitsagainst Potosi  Mining  Comp'y-  151 

Coal  mines 203 

Cole  tunnel 200 

Columbia  quartz  district  first  on  the  eastern  slope  of  Sierras-    33 

,  Regulations  of.  disregarded. 35 

Comstock,  Henry,  appropriates  section  of  Comstock  Lode 38 

locates  claim  at  Gold  Hill 36 

sells  claim 58 

sells  first  shipment  of  ore 62 

,  Sketch  of  subsequent  life  of 411 

stakes  out  claim 45 

Consolidated  Virginia  MiningCo.,  Bullion  product  of 319 

,  Development  of  mine  of 310 

incorporated 309 

,  Location  of  claim  of 45 

,  Neglect  of  mine  by 306 

stock  inflated 315 

works  destroyed  by  fire 327 

rebuilt 329 

Coover,  Cliarles  S.;  pioneer  mill  builder 86 

Corey,  James  A 45,  60 

County  seat,  Removal  of 19 

Court,  Opening  of  second  judicial  district 101 

,  Be-establishment  of  probate 41 

,  Resignation  of  judges  of  Suprenir' 164 

Courts,  Conflicts  between  rival  judges  of 103 

,  Establishment  in  Nevada  of  Territorial loS 

,  Installation  of  members  of  State 104 

df  Carson  County,  Utah 17 

,  Records  of  criminal 444 

,  Removal  of  records  of 19 

,  Trial  of  criminal  cases  before 112 

Cradlebaugh,  John  ;  j  udge  of  second  judicial  district  court —  101 

maintains  position 108 

opens  court 104 

Crime,  Causes  of 210 

,  Prevalence  of 111 

,  Statistics  of 210,  378,444 

Crown  ordinances  of  Spain,  XVII 50, 51 

XXVI 50 

Peru —     51 

Crown  Point  Mining  Co.,  Development  of  bonanza  of 282 

,  Extraordinary  depression  of  stock  of_  292 

,  Fire  in  mine  of 269 

,  Influxof  water  into  mine  of 232 

vs.  Potosi  Mining  Company 150,173 

Curtis  shaft 223 

447 


448 


ri^DEX. 


Page. 

Davidson,  Mount;  Ixow  named 63 

Dayton,  Growth  of 96 

Deidesheimer,  Philip 89 

assaults  works  of  Ophir  Company 140 

designs  system  of  timbering 90 

overestimates  Con.  Virginia  bonanza_314,31(> 

takes  charge  of  Ophir  mine 207 

Dividends,  Table  of 419 

Dolman,  William  H.;  first  Diining  district  recorder 33 

Earl,  John  0  ,  buys  i.laim  of  Peter  O'Kiley 60 

Empire  Mining  Company,  Cavingground  injures  mine  of 218 

,  Fire  in  mine  of 269 

Explorers,  Early;  Smith, Walker,  Bartleston,  BiilweU,  Fremont      8 
Fair,  James  G.,  associated  with  John  W.  Mackey  and  others.  304 

controls  Hale  and  Norcross  mine 303 

develops  Consolidated  Virginia  Mine 310 

Finney,  James 34 

,  Death  of 411 

locates  croppings  at  Gold  Hill 30 

of  Virginia  Ledge 34 

prospects  in  Gold  Canon 34 

sells  claim  to  Ophir  Company 141 

Fires  in  mines 269,292,321 

Virginia  City 325 

Flenniken,  R.  P.,  appointed  associate  justice  of  supreme  court, 

Utah 103 

arrives  at  Virginia  City 105 

resigns  under  compulsion 108 

Flood,  James  C,  aids  iu  construction  of  Virginia  City  water- 
works   323 

associated  with  Jas.  G.  Fair  and  others 304 

urges  readjustment  of  wages 3G1 

Flumes -_ 257 

Food,  Prices  of 95,200,370 

supply  to  placer  miners 20 

transported  to  mines 6G 

,  Variety  of 369 

Freeman,  James  E.;  surveyor  of  Comstock  Lode  mines 52 

Freight,  Amount  and  cost  of  transportation  of 72, 194 

,  Carriage  of,  by  rail 254,256 

,  Primitive  method  of  transporting 21 

,  Reduction  in  cost  of 361 

shipments  of  ore 61 

,  Sierran  mule  trains  for  transporting 72,193 

tonnage,  Statement  of 44G 

transportation  in  winter 60 

,  Variety  of 369 

Fremont,  John  C,  ascends  Truckee  River 7 

discovers  Pyramid  Lake 4 

enters  Carson  Valley 7,8 

Fuel,  Sources  of  supply  of 203,256 

Gamboa,  Don  F.  Z.  de,  describes  cazo  or  kettle  process 81 

notes  necessity  of  marking  boundaries 

of  mines 50 

perils  and  pains  of  mining 211 

Garrison,  William  H.  contests  title  of  Ophir  Company 142 

Genoa,  Convention  at 74 

;  depot  of  supplies 96 

,  Settlement  made  at 16 

Gold,  First  discovery  of,  in  Nevada 11 

ledge  of,  opened 34 

quartz  nugget  of,  found  at  Gold  Hill 12 

found  at  Gold  Hill 35 

,  Proportion  oj",  iu  Comstock  bullion 87, 114,  418 

Gold  Hill  and  Virginia  Tunnel  and  Mining  Company 233 


Page. 

Gold  Hill  code  disregarded  by  miners 46 

district  laws  enacted 42 

,  District  meeting  at 40 

named  by  miners 36 

News  established  in  1SG3 213 

,  Number  of  employes  of  mines  of,  in  1866 226 

,  Partial  destruction  of  mines  at 218 

,Town  of,  named 67 

Water  Company 258 

Gould,  Alva 60 

Gould  and  Curry  Silver  Min.  Co,  attacks  Seneca  Mining  Co 137 

,  Cost  of  litigation  of 129 

,  Defends  title  against  Grosche  G.  and  S.  Miu'gCo 132 

,  Exhaustion  of  bonanza  of 226 

,Mine  ami  mill  of 124,128 

,  Mine  of,  flooded 240,295 

suit  against  North  Potosi  Mining  Company 165 

Grass  Valley  Company  attacked  by  Bajazette  Company 136 

,  Examination  of  books  of 172 

Great  Basin,  Early  explorers  of  the 81 

,  Native  inhabitants  of  the 3 

,  Soil  and  climate  of  the 2 

,Topogi-aphy  of  the 1,2 

Grosche  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Co.,  Preposterous  claim  of 133 

Grosh,  Ethan  Allen,  Death  of,  at  Last  Chance  Camp 31 

discovers  silver  ledges 27,  28 

;  first  discoverer  of  silver  in  Nevada 24 

prospects  in  California 25,26 

Gold  Canon 26,27 

returns  to  California 29,30 

Grosh,  Hosea  Ballon 24 

,  Death  of,  in  Gold  Caiion 29 

Haines,  J.  W.  constructs  first  wood  flume  in  Nevada 256 

Hale  and  Norcross  Silver  Mining  Company  : 

,  Mine  product  of,  compared  with  real  estate  investment.  363 

stock  inflated 289 

Hammack,  A.  G 47, 48 

Hardy,  James 101 

Harris,  Elias  B 86 

Harrison,  B.  A 55 

Harrison  Company  consolidated  with  Burning  Moscow  Co —  143 

Hays,  John  C 71 

Hayward,  Alvinza,  buys  control  of  Crown  Point  mine 283 

incorporates  Union  Mill  and  Mining  Co___  246 
organizes  Nevada  Mill  and  Min'g  Company  284 

Heat  in  mines,  Comparative  record  of 395 

,  Effect  upon  miners  of 400 

;  how  occasioned 390 

,  Increase  of,  noted 392 

Henderson,  Alexander 35 

Hereford,  Frank;  counsel  for  Union  Mining  Company 147 

Burning  Moscow  Company 1G6 

Houseworth,  John  A  ;  first  recorder  of  Gold  Hill  district '44, 53 

Howland,  William  H.;  establishes  Miners' Foundry 82 

improves  Brevoort  pan 117 

Hughes,  Francis  J. '. 61 

Hyde,  Orson;  first  probate  judge  in  Carson  County 17 

Hydraulic  mining-.-! , 222 

James,  Isaac  E.  lays  out  Virginia  and  Truckee  railroad 251 

recovers  Virginia  ledge  notice 142 

;  surveyor  of  Comstock  Lode  mines 52 

James,  Lee 47,48 

Johnson's  Pass 65, 191 

Johntown,  Gold  Canon  settlement  made  in,  1855 33 

Jones,  John  P.,  Biographical  sketch  of 281 


DTDEX. 


449 


rago. 


Jonos,  John  P.,  combats  fire  in  mines ,___ — 

derelups  Crown  I'uiiit  l>onanza 

;  fiuperiiiteiidrul  of  Crown  I'oiut  niiuo 


2S3 
275 


Justices  of  the  i>e;uo,  llulea  adoiiteil  fur  cluctiou  of 43 

Kt'iitttck  31iue,  lire  iu 271 

Kt'^sloiie  Couiimuy  allaL-ka  I'ecilcss  Cyiupuiiy I-IO 

Kiiliy,  .Iortc|.h  ai *7,48 

Kiiiglil,  William 30 

Kuux,  Uniel  W.  doBigiia  rcilucing  ]K\n 82 

l.tt  CroBso  Company  cousoliJaleJ  wUh  Buruiug  Moscow  Co —  1-13 

I.tut,  William  JI 105 

Liiigatiou  a[iparciilly  interuilnablo — — — —  131 

Inevilaltle 07 

Locationof  mines  iu  Gold  Hill  and  Vir{;inia  districts 79,415 

filexico  and  I'eru 61 

Vuited  States 51,52 

Locke,  P.  B,  liolda  balance  of  power 15l» 

Tvs'mua — —  IKt 

;  territorial  Judge 15 


Lucky  Company,  Name  of,  changed  to  Uiirulug  Moscow  Co.. 

rt- Cords  location  — — — , — 


irj8 

137 

Lucy  r.lla  3Iinliig  Company 105 

Lumber,  Consutiipiiou  of .— 205, 351, -HG 

J'ric^Buf SG.IM 

.Supply  of 25(; 

Lynch  law  Hdiniiustcred  iu  Wesleru  L'tali 40,41 

Miickey,  John  W.  acquires  uiill  properly 3o5 

atuociatfd  wiih  Jas.  G,  Fair 3(i3 

buys  Control  of  Virgiuia  Con.  Mining  Co. —  3iK) 

.Sketch  of 301 

McLanshUu.  Patrick,  Draih  of 413 

locates  ledge 38, 30 

ojH'UB  chiim 64 

prospects  below  Comstock  Lodo 37 

BIoillsOD  Company  coDsoiiduted  with  lUiruing  Moscow  Co —  143 

coutostd  title  of  Burning  Moscow  Co. 13S 

Maldonado,  Gabriel CI 

Mi'iican  Company CI 

Bli.lJle  Ltadcaae ^«.. lOl 

Mills,  I>.0 21G 

Mills,  First  iu  Nevada 8G 

, Furore  for  building — — 113 

of  Consolidated  Virginia  Mining  Company 319 

Gould  and  Curry  Company 124 

Nevada  Mill  auJ  Miuiug  Company 284 

Ophir  Company 122 

Vnion  Mill  and  Mining  Company 24C 

.Quartz 80 

Mine  fires 209,292 


_88, 126, 216, 281, 331, 352 


Mlues,  Development  of 

.  Flood  i  ng  of 230, 343 

.Opening  of 30,33,  CO 

.Ventilation  of 91,222,393 

Miners,  Consumption  of  lirjuor  by 377 

.  Clothing  of 372 

.Crimiual  record  of «„ 378 

develop  Comstock  Lodo 00,89 

(Distribution  of  employment  of 3S5 

,  Education  of  children  of , 375 

fight  for  possession  of  claims 136 

,  Fondness  of,  for  stock  gambling 373 

.Food  of 309 

, General  condlUoQ  of 368 

,  Health  of 37i 

bold  meeting  to  enact  U^t,  ,,„ 40 


Miners.  Life  of,  in  cnmps 

,  Life  of,  iu  towns  . 


Page. 
.__    03 

...  198 


,  Loilgings  of 373 

,  Nationality,  age,  weight,  and  height  of 383 

oppose  reduction  of  wages 1S2 

orgiini/.e  first  quartz  mining  district 33 

organize  Miners'  Union 206 

,  Puins  and  iM^rils  of 219, 389 

,  IMiysicnl  development  and  appearance  of 312 

,  PUicer,  in  Gold  Cafiou 19 

,  Protective  Association  of,  formed 183 

,  Kate  of  pay  of- 387 

,  lU-lative  efficiency  of 386 

,  lleligious  disposition  of 405 

,  TuUlo  of  accidents  to 404 

Miners'  League 185 

Uulou,  Disadvantages  of 380 

enforces  its  standard  of  wages 207 

expels  Chinese 3,")5 

;  how  uiaiiitiiined 359 

organized . 206 

Moore.  John  L.  opens  first  liquor  saloon  at  mines 06 

Mormons,  Eniigraut  tniin  of 11 

;  first  st'tllcrs  in  Caraou  Valley 15 

recalled  to  Suit  Lake 18 

Mosheimer,  Jotrph 69,02 

Mott,  Gordon  N.  enjoins  Duniing  Moscow  Company 139 

opens  first  district  court 132 

rosigufl 155 

Mount  DiiTtdson - —    03 

Mur])liy,  John „ 47,48 

Nevada  Mill  and  Mining  Company 284 

Newspapers,  Number  and  circulation  of,  at  mines 214 

North,  James  A.  confers  with  Judge  Locke 159 

defends  his  action  at  public  meeting 101 

enjoins  Cliollar  Company 150 

Ophir  compauy 140 

institutes  libel  suit 103 

refuses  application  of  Ophir  Company 144 

resigns 162 

succeeds  Judge  Mott 139 

Nngent,  John,  Report  of 105. 168 

Nye,  James  W..  arrives  at  Virginia  City HO 

;  first  governor  of  Nevada 109 

Kynmaa  Indians.  Altitude  of,  toward  emigrants 10 

.General  habits  of  life  of  the 6.0.7 

.Physical  and  mental  traits  of  the 6 

popularly  termed  Pi-Utes 67 

.  Territory  of  the 4 

;  a  tribe  of  the  Pai-ute  nation 4 

Ophir  Mining  Company,  Capital  of  the 97 

confines  miners  underground 290 

erects  first  steam-engine  at  mines  __    88 

first  raises  ore  by  steiim-power 221 

harassed  by  flooding  of  mine 217 

,  Location  of  claim  of 45 

makes  first  shipment  of  ore 02 

,  Will  of 121 

.  Organization  of 59 

.Partial  destruction  of  mine  of 217 

Buitt*.  Burning  Moscow  Co 139,174 

McCaIU/a/._ 101 

works  destroyed  by  fire 328 

Ore,  Apprehended  exhaustion  of 279 

,  First  consignment  of,  from  mines., 61 


450 


INDEX. 


Page 
Ore,  Maximum  daily,  product  extracted  through  one  Bhaft-225,  312 

,  Methods  of  reduction  oi 80 

product  of  (Xnnstock  district 416,417 

in  1859 03 

CouBulidated  Virginia  and  California  Mines 319 

early  workings S7, 114 

,  Total,  extracted  daily  in  1866 225 

O'ltUey,  Peter,  locates  claim  on  Comstock  Lode 38 

opens  claim 54 

sells  claim 60 

,  Subsequent  life  of 412 

Orr,  John,  discovers  first  nugget  found  in  Nevada 12 

Thomas ;  leader  of  Mormon  emigrant  train 11 

Osbom,  Joseph  A 54, 59 

Pai-Ute  nation 4 

Paul,  Almarin  B.  builds  first  mill  in  Nevada 84 

reduces  ore  from  mines 87 

Peurod  Emanuel 39,54 

Pioneer  Quartz  Company  first  open  up  ledge  in  Western  Utah.     34 

Stage  Company 104 

Pi-Utes  attack  overland  station 07 

defeat  whites 69 

gather  in  force  at  Pyramid  Lake G8 

popular  name  of  Pai-Ute  nation.  (See    Nyiunas.) 4 

Placer  miners,  Cost  of  supplies  of 21 

,  Daily  life  of 10,20 

,  Gold  Cafion  colony  of 15 

,  Method  of  supply  of 22 

Plato,  Joseph 36,87 

Police,  Inefficiency  of  early  force  of 74,110 

,  Reports  of 210,378 

Price,  Patrick,  buried  alive  by  caving  of  mine »__ 219 

Prices,  Comparative  table  of 371 

current  in  1800 95 

1867 200 

1880 370 

Prospectors,  First,  in  the  Great  Basin 12 

,  Method  of  work  of 49, 79, 91, 306 

,  Peon,  from  Sonora 13 

,  Rush  of,  to  Washoe 57,79 

Pronse,  William,  first  discovers  gold  in  Nevada 11 

Pyramid  Lake  discovered  by  Fremont 4 

,  Fight  at 07,69 

Randall,  P.  M.  patents  conoidal  plate  pan 120 

Recorder  district,  First,  in  Gold  Hill  district 44 

Western  Utah 33 

Reese,  John;  pioneer  settler 15 

River  region 228 

Rich  Mining  Company's  contest  with  Lucy  Ella  Co 106 

Rogers,  James 36 

St.  Louis  Company 105 

Saloons,  Appearance  of 73,93 

,  First,  at  mines 66 

,  Number  of,  in  Storey  County 377 

Salt  mines 201 

San  Francisco  Stock  Exchange 131 

,  Committee  appointed  by 288 

Santa  Rita  Tunnel 259 

Savage  Mining  Company  confines  miners  under  ground 290 

,  Location  of  mine  of 102 

pays  last  dividend 279 

,  Shrinkage  in  stock  value  of 293 

Schools,  Foundation  of 206 

,  Statistics  of 375 

Scbussler,  Henry,  designs  Virginia  City  water-works 323 


P*ge. 

Seneca  Min'g  Co.  attacked  by  Gould  and  Curry  Min^g  Co 137 

Sharon,  Wm.,  agent  of  Bank  of  California 244 

determines  to  construct  railroad  from  mines  to 

mills 251 

disposes  of  bis  interest  in  Crown  Point  Mine 283 

promotes  organization  of  Union  Mill  and  Min*g 

Company 246 

sued  for  use  of  V  flume 258 

Shoshones,  Characteristics  of 3 

,  Life  of 3 

Sides,  R.  D 48 

Sierra  Nevada  Mining  Company's  claim  located 53 

suit  against  American  Co. 148 

Silver  first  discovered  in  Western  Utah 26 

,  First,  mine  opened  on  Pacific  coast 35 

,  Proportions  of,  in  Comstock  bullion 87,114,418 

found  in  lode  opened  by  prospectors  ignorantly 55 

Sonora  Expl'g  and  Min'g  Co.  open  first  silver  mine  on  Pacific 

coast 33 

Stewart,  Wm.  M.  advocates  Mexican  system  of  allotment 145 

compels  resignation  of  Judge  Flenniken 107 

;  counsel  for  Chollar  Company 158 

Ophir  Company 101 

Sierra  Nevada  Company 149 

demands   resignation   of  entire   temtorial 

bench 1 162 

estimates  cost  of  litigations 173 

;  incorporator  of  Sutro  Tunnel  Company 234 

;  method  of  conducting  litigation 147 

,  Professional  income  of 146 

resigns  presidency  of  company 237 

supports  Judge  Cradlebaugb 105 

Stock  Exchanges  appoint  committee  to  investigate  manage- 
ment of  mines 287 

,  Deterioration  of 318 

,  Organization  of , 131 

Sucker  Company 115 

Sutro,  Adolph,  appeals  to  Congress 208 

describes  Indian  War 69 

endeavors  to  prosecute  work 236 

notes  insufficient  working  of  mines 216 

obtains  subscription  to  treasury  stock 299 

organizes  Sutro  Tunnel  Company 234 

Sutro  Tunnel  Company  incorporated 233 

,  Alleged  unservicability  of 239 

,  Comparative  utility  of 346 

,  Cost  of 342 

examined  by  commission  of  engineer  officers  _  298 

fairly  begun 300 

,  Work  of  excavation  of 234 


Tables. 

Telegraph  line.  First.. 


..415-446 
197 


Territorial  Enterprise ;  oldest  newspaper  in  Nevada 213 

Terry,  David  S 101,105,108 

Theatres  first  opened 93 

,  Performances  at 212,377 

Thompson,  John  A.;  Sierran  expressman 21 

Toll  roads 192 

Truckeo  River  named  by  Fremont 7 

Turner,  Geoi^e;  territorial  Judge 157 

favors  Chollar  title 160 

resigns 162 

Uncle  Sam  Mining  Company  attacks  Centerville  Company  —  136 

['nion  Mill  and  Mining  Company -  .  --..  .  — .  246 

Tunnel 89 


INDEX. 


451 


Page. 

Ventilation  of  mines 91,  222, 393 

Virginia  and  Gold  Uill  Water  Company 259, 331 

Tnickee  Railroad  Company 240,255 

Caraon  and  Truckee  Railroad  Company 250 

City,  Business  houses  in 352 

,  Civic  organization  of,  abandoned 409 

formally  incorporated 109 

.Growth  of 94 

;  how  named G3 

Pottery  Company 205 

Minors'  Union 2C0 

reincorporated 198 

Union 213 

Consolidated  Mining  Company  incorporated 309 

Gas  Company 205 

Ledge  located  1858 __ 34 

.Title  to 141 

mining  district  laws 91,92 

organized 91 

Water  Company 268 

Wages,  Establishment  of  arbitrary  standard  of 207 

of  minors CI. 90 

skilled  and  unskilled  labor 90 

,  Proposed  readjustment  of 301 

,  Effect  on  min'g  operations  of__  305 

redaction  of 182 

,  Reduction  of 190 

Walsh,  James,  buys  claim  from  Comstock 68 


Pago. 

Walsh,  Jftmee,  locates  Sierra  Nevada  claim 63 

reaches  Gold  Hill 65 

sells  first  shipment  of  ore 01,  02 

Washoe  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company 85 

Indians . 5 

Valley 4 

,  Rush  to 64,71 

Water-works  of  Virginia  City  extended 331 

planned 323 

Webb,  Joseph , 47 

Wheeler,  Zenas,  invents  reduction  pan 117 

pan  contrasted  with  Varney  pan 119 

patents  conoidal  plate  pan 120 

Whitney,  George  D.;  President  of  Sierra  Nevada  Company 148 

betrays  interests  of  'ompany 150 

Williams,  Oscar,  Edwin,  and  James,  attacked  by  Pi-Utes 07 

Winnemucca;  Chief  of  Pi-Utes 68 

Winters,  John  D 47,48,54,59 

Woodworth,  Joseph,  reaches  Gold  Hill 55 

locates  Sierra  Nevada  claim 63 

Selim  E.  designs  reduction  pan 84 

Yellow  Jacket  Mining  Co  attacks  Gentry  Mining  Company,.  130 

,  Failure  of  ore  body  in  mine  of 280 

,  Fire  in  mine  of 270  • 

t'«.  Union  Mining  Company 135,147 

Yerrington,  II.  M.;  Supt.  of  Virginia  &  Truckee  Railroad  Co..  253 
Yount,  John 35 


